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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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DIARY 



OF A 



Western Schoolmaster 



J K STABLETON 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 
CHARLESTON ILL 



J H MILLER Publisher 



AINSWORTH & COMPANY 

378-388 Wabash Avenue 
Chicago III 



LB 1037 
.S78f 



I THE LIBRARY 6V 

Two Copies Reosived 

OCT. r?i 1902 

0UAS8 ^ leCBT Mo 

"i- I- "] - 1 
COPY S. 



Copyrighted 
BY J. H. MILLER. 

1900. 



Becktold 

Printing & Book Mfg. Co., 

St. Louis, Mo. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 5 

Chapter I — Joe 11 

II — Tim 19 

III — Clark 31 

IV — John 37 

V — Tad 44 

VI — Sam 48 

VII — Mark 59 

VIII — Dick 65 

IX — Chap 71 

X — Will 78 

XI — Harry 82 

XII — Tom 86 

(3) 



CONTP]NTS. 

XIII — Henry 93 

XIV — George 99 

XV — Nim 103 

XVI — Nate 109 

XVII — Al and Walter 120 

XVIII — Wash 126 

XIX — Rex 131 

XX — Carl and Some Other Boys . 133 



INTRODUCTION 

For the past fifteen years most of my time has 
been given to teaching in schools where I have had 
to deal with many boys from twelve to twenty years 
of age, boys in the adolescent period of life. The 
study of these boys has been full of interest to me ; 
and while I have made no great discoveries, my 
faith in boys has increased an hundredfold and my 
respect and love for them has grown more and 
more. 

Not long ago I visited a school of bright young 
people full to the brim, just as they should be, 
with animal life and spirits ; but a glance told me 
that for real educational work the school was a 
failure. I was interested and at the close of the 
session had a long talk with the teacher in charge. 
It was an eighth and ninth grade room. How I 
pitied those young people. The teacher told me 

(5) 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

there was not a boy in the room but ought to be 
sent to the State Reform School. He knew all their 
bad points, hut had failed to discover their good 
qualities. Again I pitied the young people. This 
teacher (?) had been in charge of that school for 
eight years, and all the time the boys had been 
going to "the bad." The people said Mr. A. 
was not much of a teacher, but such a good man 
and his father-in-law was an influential man on the 
board of education ; so Mr. A. held his position 
year in and year out. 

How many such persons are posing in our schools 
to-day, who by their very goodness are blighting 
the lives of the boys of the communities where they 
are employed! Better far for the boys if these 
persons could be i^ensioned outright and " living " 
teachers put into their places ; teachers that have 
unbounded faith in boys ; teachers that have re- 
ceived a baptism of modern educational spirit and 
believe it their duty to study the boys and the girls 
even more carefully than their arithmetical problems. 

Then, too, I have seen that other teacher, a 
college graduate, holds a high grade certificate, 
keeps perfect order, is said to be a fine disciplin- 
arian, but the boys never pass beyond her room. 
Where is the trouble? No one blames her, she is 
an excellent teacher, so say the people. The fact 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

is she neither understands nor appreciates boys. 
She is too exacting. Boys are loose-jointed at this 
age, mentally and physically. She thinks they 
ought to step with the same smoothness of move- 
ment as girls ; they cannot do it, try they ever so 
hard, and they do not know why. Their legs are 
too long or something is wrong, and their hands are 
only inconvenient appendages. Yet they walk after 
a manner and use their hands after a manner, too. 
Their blackboard work looks more like the work of 
" scrawlers " than ever before, and the teacher 
wonders why they are so careless. Did she but 
recognize the fact that these boys are entering a 
new state mentally and phj^sically, and that this un- 
certainty of all they do is the uncertainty of their 
new condition of life, instead of nagging them she 
would smile and console herself with the thought 
that soon, with a little patience on her part, they 
would again become acquainted with themselves 
and be able to do better than before. 

The mechanical movement of this school is beau- 
tiful to look at, but there is no soul in the work, no 
longing on the part of the teacher to be help- 
ful to those that so much need an uplifting 
friend ; no careful study of the life of each boy, 
mentally, jAysically, and socially, to be able to 
reach the secret springs of action to call forth the 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

good ; but, on the other hand, the teacher is glad 
when some real cause comes for a boy's dropping 
out of school. I say real cause, for did not the 
cause have semblance of reality she might lose her 
position. But did you ever stop to consider how 
very few are the real causes for boys leaving school 
before they have received some good from the 
higher grades ? This teacher does not cast a single 
lasso of interest about the boys to bind them to 
school, so they drift away. 

With superintendents who are in close sympathy 
with boys and are ardent students of boy life, and 
the right kind of principals and of teachers in the 
higher grades, our high schools would be full of 
boys, and the girls, too, would still be there. It is 
not a question of male or female teachers, but a 
question as to who are such students of boy life as 
to try to understand them in this evolutionary period 
and to work in accord with the laws of their being. 

This transitional period comes to all boys, but no 
two are affected in exactly the same way. We 
should not expect it. " Unity in variety " is the 
law of nature as well in the physical and mental 
development of boys as in the leaves and flowers of 
the field. We may, to some extent, understand 
" the unity," but " the variety " we must refer to 
some probably unknown psjcho-i^hysiological cause, 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

and not mistake it for the inspirations of the devil. 
After fifteen years of work with boys, I am con- 
vinced that His Satanic Majesty has but little in- 
fluence over them at this age, and that when he does 
the teacher is too often his chief executive. 

That man or that woman who can look right into 
a boy's heart and by a mere glance of the eye make 
the boy feel that he or she is his friend, is a power. 
I do not understand it all, but I do know that the 
eye is a mighty instrument for good, probably be- 
cause through it the soul of the teacher beams forth 
in jDcrfect sympathy with the soul of the boy ; the 
boy trusts ; and the teacher trusts, directs, and with 
a strong hand controls. Yet, while there are 
teachers that seem intuitively to understand boys 
at this age, there is really less intuition than at first 
appears. These teachers are students of child-life, 
hour by hour, day by day, — yes, year by year, 
they are studying the boys. Ask one of them about 
some boy and you will be surprised to learn that 
the teacher knows him in his environments, knows 
him in his inherited tendencies, knows him in the 
peculiar workings of his mind. 

No greater blessing can come to a boy at this 
age when he does not understand himself than to 
have a good, strong teacher who understands him, 
in part, at least, and has faith in him for the 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

unknown quantity, and is willing, day by day, 
patiently, firmly yet kindly, to lead him till he is 
able to walk alone. 

The following sketches are from my own experi- 
ence, not one fictitious character among them. If 
they fail to reveal the spirit that should character- 
ize school work, they are not worth the telling. 

J. K. Stableton. 
Charleston, Illinois. 



CHAPTER I 



JOE 



Some time ago while talking with a man of great 
financial ability, a man who for a number of years 
had been one of the leaders in every great financial 
enteri3rise in his city, I was forcibly impressed by a 
remark of his. 

He said: "I have no education." "I gradu- 
uated from our city high school, but my grades 
were poor and I have not improved since." " I 
don't know anything." I looked at him. Keen 
financial sense, accurate judgment, wonderful 
powers of concentration, and indomitable energy 
were all his. I thought to myself : " You may not 
Possess a literary or a scientific education, but you 
are educated in no mean way ; by contact with peo- 
ple and things you have gained an education that is 

(11) 



12 DIARY OF A 

no more one-sided than that possessed by many who 
pose as scholars." 

The man who has learned much and learned it 
well, in the laboratory of real life, has an educa- 
tion not to be despised. That business training 
gives mental strength must be recognized in dealing 
with those young persons who have been out of 
school a year or two, regularly employed in busi- 
ness of some kind, and who wish to enter school 
again. The mental strength may not be in just the 
same line that school develops ; possibly different 
brain cells are brought into activity or the activity 
may be of a very different kind from that induced 
by school work. 

I am more than half inclined to believe that we 
are unfair when we make so much of manual train- 
ing and laboratory work in school — and I think we 
do not overestimate the value of these — when we 
magnify that training and minify the training re- 
ceived in the shop, the office, and the store, the lab- 
oratories of business life. 

If, as is now said, school is not a training /or life 
but a training in life, we as teachers must more 
generally recognize the fact that valuable mental 
training may be acquired outside of the school 
room, and when young people wish to re-enter 
school, use common sense and place them where 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 13 

they riglitly belong. Too often they are sacrificed 
to a false idea of " keeping up the grade of the high 
school." 

Joe was a messenger boy and general " roust- 
about ' ' at the town depot ; delivered messages ; 
took the mail bags in a hand cart to and from 
the depot; cleaned and filled the depot lamps; 
in cold weather kept the fires going ; in fact, did 
all the odd jobs that in such places always fall to 
the willing worker. 

He was about fourteen years of age, and of 
such size that the cart filled high with mail bags 
almost hid him from view. His soot-begrimed 
face was overshadowed by a full forehead across 
which were two or three deep wrinkles that gave him 
an old look. His brow was generally crowned with 
a rimless crown, or acrownlessrim, owing to which 
had been left him in his last encounter. His prom- 
inent nose and cheek bones were more than off-set 
by a pair of black eyes that hghted up his whole 
countenance or snapped fire like flint if the occasion 
demanded battle. He was so bright and quick 
that the men about the depot were continually 
pinching him, and punching him in the ribs, or in 
some way tormenting him just to see him fight back. 
I always speak to boys, so when I met Joe at the 
depot I spoke to him, and we were soon acquainted. 



14 DIARY OF A 

He had been out of school more than a year when I 
first met him. All this time he had been employed 
there and was considered by the agent in charge the 
most capable and trustworthy boy ever in his serv- 
ice. Joe's mother was a widow and it was neces- 
sary at this time for him to help make his own 
living. 

One evening I was standing on the depot platform 
when Joe came up to me and said : " You are going 
to have exercises at the high school to-morrow ; the 
boys have been telling me about them." There 
was a wistful look in his face as I replied: " Yes, 
can't you come up and hear them ? We would be 
glad to have you visit us." "I'd like to hear 
them, but I'm afraid I can't leave here," said he. 

Then his eyes beamed forth as if he were think- 
ing of the dearest scheme of his life, and looking 
me full in the face he said: " O, but I'd like to go 
to your school." 

" And I'd like to have you in our school," I 
rephed. 

" I can't go now, but maybe I can some day," 
continued he. 

We talked a few moments longer, then I returned 
home thinking what a pity it was that Joe could 
not be in school. 

This was in November. In January I was out 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 15 

of town a few days, and when I returned home the 
principal of the high school told me that Joe had 
come to school the day before, and, instead of go- 
ing to the seventh grade or the eighth to finish his 
work there, had asked to be permitted to sit in the 
high school until I should return, saying that he 
believed I would let him enter the high school. 
His class that he had dropped out of in the seventh 
grade was now the first year class in the high 
school doing ninth grade work. 

The principal was somewhat amused at the boy 
but permitted him to wait to talk with me about 
his work. Joe made known his wish to me. I 
asked him if he thought he could do the work. 
" I'm sure I can; I've been trying it," said he. 
*' O, but I'll work if you will let me stay in here." 

I looked at his intelligent face. I thought of his 
business record at the depot, and of his ability to 
work ; that he was strong physically and quick 
mentally so that he would not be injured by a little 
extra work. I told him that he might try it ; that 
I, too, believed he could do the work ; that it all 
depended on himself whether or not he remained in 
the high school. There was no question in my mind 
about his holding his place. I knew he could do it. 

A few weeks after he had entered the class, one 
of the boys made the remark at home that he did 



16 DIAKY OF A 

not think it fair that Joe had been permitted to go 
into the same class he was in when he left school, 
after being out more than a year. " Does he do 
the work?" asked the boy's father. "Yes, he 
does it as well as any one in the class," replied the 
boy. " Then he is just where he should be," said 
the father, who was not only a well educated man 
in the school sense of the term, but also a man of 
fine business ability. 

Joe completed the high school course and grad- 
uated, one of the best scholars in his class. He is 
to-day a prosperous young businessman. Had I 
placed him in either the seventh grade or the eighth, 
I fear he would have made life a burden to his 
teacher, and, possibly, yes, I would better say 
probably, would have dropped out of the school 
again within a few months. 

There are many boys who have been out of school 
a year or two who would gladly avail themselves of 
our high school privileges were it not for the fear of 
being placed too far back in the grades to make up 
work before being permitted to try the higher studies. 

Some of these boys have been compelled by home 
duties to leave school to work ; others, boylike, 
have been seized with a passion for making money, 
and, after two or three years of steady business, 
realize their need of more thorough school training ; 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. ' 17 

yet only a few of these enter the high school. Most 
of them that enter school again go to some private 
school or academy, where they are given a chance 
to try what they can do without basing everything 
on the amount of school work they have already 
done ; schools where their maturity of mind is taken 
into consideration ; schools where their ability to do 
is recognized whether it comes from training in 
school, work-shop, office, or store. 

Our public high schools owe more to these young 
people than they ordinarily give them ; and we 
superintendents and high school principals ought to 
consider it a part of our business to become 
acquainted with all such young persons in our midst 
and to bring them into our schools. We need not 
fear their lowering our standard of scholarship. 

In many cases the parents of these boys are not 
capable of counseling with them, and after they 
are out of school a year or two they lose touch with 
their teachers, so that when they begin to feel that 
they are short in their preparation, they have no one 
with whom to advise, and so drift on. 

If, however, the high school principal or the 
superintendent, comes into contact with these young- 
people, and shows an interest in them, he can easily 
advise them of the possibilities the high school 
brings within their reach. 



18 DIARY OF A 

Thus many of them can be given an uplift that 
will place them in a world of new activities. But 
this can only be where we follow a sensible plan in 
adjusting them to their places in school, Ability 
to do, and 7iot " What grade work have you done," 
must be their test for entrance to the high school. 



CHAPTER II 



TIM 



I remember first seeing Tim, a boy ten years of 
age, just ready to shed his knee pants, a beautiful 
boy to look at, and with a spring in his movement 
that so attracted my attention that I turned around 
to give him a second glance. 

He was in the seventh grade, and from almost 
the first day manifested an unruly disposition. 
His idea seemed to be that no one should control 
him. He had been elsewhere to school, and was 
familiar with most of the mean little ways of annoy- 
ing a teacher and disturbing the school. He began 
by telling the boys that his teacher did not dare to 
whip him ; that she would better not touch him, 
and continued in this way until it became evident 
that unless he showed a different spirit he could 
not long be tolerated in the school. When he 

(19) 



20 DIARY OF A 

made a disturbance, if his teacher spoke to him, he 
would fly into a violent passion, and become very 
disagreeable to deal with. 

I talked with his teacher about him and finally 
decided that probably the best thing for him and all 
concerned would be to give him a strapping. 

His mother said, " I can do nothing with him at 
home, if you can make anything out of him, do it, 
and use your own judgment as to the means 3'ou 
employ." I studied his case until I felt confident 
that physical pain would have a very beneficial 
effect on him. 

A few days after I came to this conclusion, the 
seventh and eighth grades were passed into the 
high school room to spend an hour. As they were 
returning to their respective rooms Tim created dis- 
order in the ranks by interfering with those in front 
of him. I at once stepped up to him and hurried 
him into an office at the end of the hall. He 
fought, tried to bite, screamed, threatened, and 
dared me to punish him. His face was pale with 
rage, and he seemed like one crazed with anger. I 
held him until he had spent his force in fighting, 
and then strapped him. That brought him to his 
senses and he quieted down. We had no more 
trouble with him for some time. 

After this I was always careful to be as pieasant 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 21 

with him as though we had had no trouble ; and he 
was polite and gentlemanly toward me. Still his 
old disposition was there, restrained only by fear of 
another strapping. For two years we held him in 
this way, once in a great while having to punish 
him. 

He was quick to learn, in fact, talented, but all 
ordinary means failed to awaken the rigbt spirit in 
him, and the fear of bodily pain alone held him 
back from being unbearable in school. 

Out of school, he was rough, but very nidustri- 
ous, always busy at something. This industry was 
a good quality, yet his language and manners were 
such that very few had much use for him. My only 
hope for him was that by holding him in school, the 
regular work of the school and the discipline would 
" in time establish in him better habits of living and 
thinking. 

Had we sent him away from school, or to the 
state reformatory, no one would have found fault ; 
but I felt then as I feel now, that the public schools 
are not only for those of regular habits, but also to 
help those that most need help. 

Tim passed from the eighth to the ninth grade, 
and was now under the care of another teacher, one 
of the best I have ever known for most scholars, but 
too sympathetic and tender for this boy. She was 



22 DIARY OF A 

sure when the term opened that she could so win 
him that he would cease to be as he had been and 
become a pleasure. I was not so confident but 
said nothing to lessen her interest in him. Every- 
thing went well for a time, but only for a time, then 
he began to try her. She worked hard to get along 
with him, and did more than teachers would ordi- 
narily do to make him feel her interest in him, but 
to no purpose. 

One day, a few minutes before the noon nour, 
she said she would like me to be near at noon as 
Tim had remained out of the room over time and, 
from his actions, he was doing so just to annoy her 
and assert himself ; that she intended to detain him 
a few minutes after school to finish the work he 
was escaping by remaining out over time. 

At noon she asked me to please come to her 
room ; then, in the presence of the boy, she explained 
the situation. 

Tim stood at the blackboard in a violent passion, 
a deathly pallor on his face, and, instead of writing 
the work neatly on the board, was scraping and 
marking just to give vent to his anger. I spoke to 
him and requested him to place the work on the 
board as directed. 

He snarled and said that he would not do it ; 
that he was going home, and that no one could 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 23 

make him do it. I stepped up to him, caught his 
hands in mine, and holding him in front of me with 
his back toward me, asked the janitor, who was 
near, to open the office door and get me the strap. 
Tim kicked at me, bit at me, and raved in words it 
would be out of place to mention here. 

I held him, as I had done on a former occasion, 
until he had tired himself out raving and fighting, 
then I applied the strap. I used it severely, but 
not brutally. He became tired of it and said, " If 
you will quit, I will do any thing you want." I 
asked him if he could and would go to his room and 
place the work on the board as his teacher had di- 
rected him. He replied that he would do it ; and 
he did it. This was the last conflict we had with 
him. 

The next year he was under the care of still 
another teacher. I feared she would have trouble 
with him, but she did not. His former teacher had 
been too sympathetic with him, had appreciated his 
good points, and had let him know it. He could 
not stand this. He had not yet reached the stage 
where it was safe to let him know that his good 
qualities were appreciated. The teacher who now 
had charge of him knew every good characteristic, 
and also knew that he was too weak to be treated 
with anything but rigid justice ; that no expression 



24 DIARY OF A 

of interest or sympathy could be given ; that he 
must be held strictly to his work. She had no 
trouble with him, or nothing of a serious character. 

One day, while at the black board, he placed a 
piece of chalk on the floor and crushed it beneath 
his feet. The teacher saw the act and quietly told 
him to take an eraser and a piece of paper and clean 
up the dirt he had made. He looked a moment, but 
there was no uncertainty in the eye of the teacher, 
so he obeyed. Without any one else's knowing 
it, she detained him a moment at noon and told him 
never to let such a thing occur again. This was 
the only trouble that, in three years, came between 
them. He became one of the most trusty boys in 
the high school. 

Up to this time it had seemed a question as to 
how he might finally shape his course, but now we 
had great hopes of him. Patrons of the school 
often remarked that their children said Tim had 
become one of the best boys of the school. All 
knew what he had been, and in reply I could 
truthfully say, '' Yes, he is one of the best." 

At the end of this year it was necessary for him 
to stop out a year to work. He told me what he 
was compelled to do, but said that he could not give 
up the idea of some day finishing his high school 
course. He was sorry to leave his class, and we 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 25 

were sorry to have him leave. There was no dan- 
ger now in letting him know he was appreciated ; it 
did him good. 

He went to his work, but he was not forgotten. 
During the yem, when his class was invited to my 
home to spend an evening, Tim was remembered. 
If anything of unusual interest was going on at the 
school he was invited over for the afternoon. Often 
he would come of his own accord to my home to 
spend an evening. Thus the bond of sympathy was 
strengthened and his interest in the school was 
maintained. 

The following September Tim waa in his place, 
but with another class. He was so happy to get 
into school asjain that he lost no time in lamentiuo: 
the fact that he was entering a class that was once 
below him. 

What a pleasure he was this year! His mind, 
always bright and active, seemed more alert than 
ever. 

Now and then he could have a day or two of 
work in an office, and he was always excused for 
it. There was no danger of his losing anything ex- 
cept the class instruction, and the work gave him 
the means to keep himself neatly clad. He never 
failed to prepare the lessons he missed, and was 
ready to recite them whenever his teachers wished 



^ 



26 DIARY OF A 

to hear him. Often when he knew he could have 
work, he would prepare his school lessons in ad- 
vance, and at the close of school in the evening 
would say that he would like to be excused the next 
day as he had work, and that he had prepared the 
advance lessons and would recite them before going 
home if his teachers preferred. 

Thus a year passed without a break on Tim's 
part, and no one now thought of his doing anything 
but what was strictly right. His standing in the 
high school was as good as the best, and outside of 
school his conduct was no longer what it had been ; 
he was a gentleman. At home his mother said he 
was like a different boy, and his people were very 
proud of him. 

Thus he continued till within a year of graduat- 
ting when the summer brought new conditions. 
The drouth blighted the crops, and the financial 
stringency of the times made those who had not 
other resources than their daily income from labor, 
wonder how the demands of the coming year were 
to be met. Tim's parents felt the i^roblem was one 
they needed to consider, and after talking and 
planning as best they could, they could see no 
other way than for Tim to drop out of school and 
work. This seemed more than he could well stand. 
He could not help it, but broke down and cried. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 27 

His mother cried too, then she said he should go to 
school ; they would manage someway ; that come 
what would he should finish his high school course 
that year. 

This last year he passed in a most satisfactory 
manner and graduated in June, respected by his 
teachers, fellow-classmates, and the people of the 
community. 

I knew his family and connections well. His 
mother was an excellent woman, and at the time I 
first became acquainted with the family was living 
with her second husband, Tim's step-father. I 
also knew his mother's father and brothers. Her 
father was a man of more than ordinary intellectual 
ability, but strongly passionate, and until late in 
life had made use of intoxicants. His sons, Tim's 
uncles, were much like their father. One of them, 
when in a passion, was a desperate man ; as a result 
of his wrong-doing he had served two terms in the 
State penitentiary. Another had an almost equally 
quick temper, but ordinarily was a kindhearted 
man, yet a man whom it was not best to make 
angry. That same tendency to fly into a passion 
that at first was so noticeable in Tim was char- 
acteristic of his uncles, and had interfered much 
with their best interests in life. 

Since Tim o^raduated he has been an industrious, 



28 DIARY OF A 

trustworthy young man, respected and honored by 
all. 

A little incident that occurred two years after he 
graduated throws some light on his own views of 
himself. It was nearing the close of the school 
year and the high school alumni were preparing for 
their annual meeting. The committee on program 
had assigned Tim a place as one of the speakers. 
As he had been teaching, the committee requested 
that he would relate some of his experiences with 
corporal punishment. He was witty, and the com- 
mittee hoped to hear something funny ; but imme- 
diately on receipt of the notice of his subject Tim 
called at my home and asked me if I thought the 
committee remembered what a time he himself had 
had when I first came to superintend their school. 
" For," said he, " you had to punish me as you did 
to bring me to my senses, and it was a blessing to 
me. You did the right thing, but I do not like 
even to think how I was at that time, so I believe I 
will ask for another subject that will recall nothing 
but pleasant memories." 

I had learned that in rare cases physical pain 
would bring a boy to his senses when too angry to 
stop to reason. I tried this on Tim and found it 
true with him. After I made this discovery I con- 
sidered his case in this way. He had probably in- 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 29 

herited a tendency to fly into a passion and had 
been permitted to do much as he pleased. His 
street education had also been against him. He 
had a fine intellect, possessed unusual power to 
concentrate his mind, and was very industrious. 
He was now at the critical period in life when he 
was more apt to give way to anger than at any 
other time. If by any means we could control the 
objectionable features in him and at the same time 
develop his intellect and cultivate his better nature, 
his better self would gain the ascendency, he would 
learn to govern his temper, and make a valuable 
citizen. But, if left as he was, he would be ruled 
by the play of passion and possibly become a worth- 
less member of society. I asked myself the question 
whether it were not better for me once in a while 
to give him a severe strapping and thus make it 
possible for him to be under the educating influence 
of the school, rather than to send him out into the 
street, or perhaps to the vState reformatory. 

I answered it thus : there might be, and doubt- 
less was, something other than corporal punishment 
that would bring about the desired result, but I had 
not been able to find it, and it was my duty to ad- 
minister that which I knew would be helpful to the 
patient. This is the spirit in which I resorted to 
corporal punishment. 



30 DIARY OF A 

From this short sketch of Tim and our work 
with him you cannot easily see how much thought 
was given to his case. I studied him from every 
possible standpoint. I have given you only a 
faint conception of the facts as they actually were. 



CHAPTER III 



CLARK 



In the year 1885 I was elected principal of a de- 
nominational school in one of the Western States. 
In this position the management of the boys fell 
largely to me. 

Among the boys that entered the fall term of 188-, 
was Clark, about fifteen years of age, short, heavy- 
set, with a round face, thick lips, a big mouth 
easily set into a grin, large, dark brown eyes, a 
heavy suit of jet black hair, and at first a rather 
pert manner in his general make-up. While his 
features were none too regular, a kind word or some 
little attention brought a bright light into his eyes 
and his whole face beamed in a happy smile. 

Clark was in the lower classes, so that it was some 
time before I became much acquainted with him. 
On Halloween night a number of the boys engaged 

(31) 



32 DIARY OF A 

in some sport which it became necessary for me to 
consider the following day ; and in straightening up 
the affair, I had private talks with a number of 
them. Clark was a visitor at my office. He came 
to see me just after noon and was much excited and 
very uneasy. I soon found he had done noth- 
ing to which I could object. He cried as if his 
heart would break, and said that if his uncle who 
had sent him there should hear of his having been 
up before me for disorderly conduct he would be 
taken home. That evening, after I was through 
with my work, I called at the house where Clark 
was boarding and invited him to take a walk with 
me. 

As we walked along he told me the story of his 
life. This was what I desired to know. His 
father and mother had died within a few months of 
each other, leaving three small boys. Clark, then 
five years of age, was the oldest. There was but 
little property, so the boys were left to the care of 
relations. The youngest was taken by a grand- 
mother to another State ; the two older ones fell to 
an uncle, who gave them a home, or rather a place 
to stay, but his manner toward them was such that 
the younger had gone, they knew not where. 
Clark feared his uncle very much, and said that if 
he did wrong his uncle punished him severely ; if 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 33 

he did right there was never an encouraging word. 
This and much more he told me of himself, his 
home, and his people. I have become acquainted 
with his people since then, and know he told me 
the truth. 

While talking with him I was careful as to what 
I said. I advised him to look at the other side. 
Boys often get such notions into their heads when 
the facts are exactly opposite ; then, too, a poor 
home was better for him than no home at all, and 
his uncle had manifested some interest in him or he 
would not have given him the opportunity to attend 
school. 

He told me farther that he and the principal of 
the local school could not get along together ; and 
as his uncle wished to be away from home for some 
months he had sent him to us to be cared for. 
Thus we talked together for an hour, of his home, 
his people, his conduct at the home school, of what 
was expected of him with us, of the friends he 
would have in the teachers ; and when we parted, I 
knew I could help the boy to a better life, and his 
happy manner told me he felt that I was his friend. 

He was with us three years ; he was not always 
perfect in his conduct, but he was always true. 
He was a jolly-hearted, high-spirited boy and some- 
times made little ' • breaks ; ' ' but his intentions 
3 



34 DIARY OF A 

were always good. He trusted me implicitly and 
made me his confidant in all things. I trusted him 
also, and the bond of friendship between us became 
very strong. 

Once the woman with whom he boarded called to 
tell me she could not keep him longer as he was too 
disorderly, too loud, and she thought he ought to 
be sent home. I listened patiently to what she 
said and promised to talk with him. 

I knew he was not intentionally disorderly, but 
so full of life it was hard for him to keep himself 
within bounds. He was in good health, very 
strong physically, and of an impulsive, hilarious 
make-up, and just at the age when he was least 
able to control himself, and I did not wonder that 
his Boise was sometimes more than the woman could 
silently endure. 

I told him of -the complaint, at the same time 
explaining what I thought of his conduct, and re- 
quested that in the future he take care to give vent 
to his effervescing spirit out of doors, and not allow 
his fun to disturb others in the same house. There 
were no more complaints. 

When I became acquainted with Clark's uncle, I 
saw the secret of his trouble with the boy. The 
uncle intended to do right by him, but was a man 
born with a narrow, selfish soul, that could not well 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 35 

take into his affections anyone beyond his own 
family ; and while he gave Clark a place to stay and 
looked after him quite closely, his heart was sealed 
against the boy, and the boy was starving for love 
and S3mipathy. Clark was impulsive and warm- 
hearted, an affectionate boy that could scarcely 
live without an intimate friend. The uncle failed 
because he withheld the one thing the boy needed. 

At the end of three years Clark dropped out of 
school and went to one of our large cities to earn 
his living. The little money left him had been used 
in sending him to school and now he must try life 
for himself. He had secured a position through a 
friend, but knew no one in the city. I felt anxious 
about him, and during the first six months I wrote 
him regularly once a week. I knew he needed a 
friend, and in return he told me all his little " ups 
and downs " that mean so much to a lonely boy. 
Then as he had become somewhat acquainted, I 
wrote less often ; but to-day, after ten years have 
passed, the letters still come and go. He is a pros- 
perous young business man in that city and the 
bond of friendship between us is as strong as ever. 

Do not think I take the credit of Clark's doing 
well to myself ; far from it. There was good in the 
boy. I did my best for him at a time when he 
needed a friend. Sympathy, firmness, and honest 



36 DIARY OF A 

dealing will do much to help a warm-hearted, im- 
pulsive boy, who can so easily go astray, across the 
uncertain age to good, strong manhood. 

It pays to study a boy, to know him as he does 
not know himself. I admit it takes time ; but he 
whose soul is imbued with the spirit of the Great 
Teacher will find time for the work. 



CHAPTER IV 



JOHN 



In September 188-, John entered our school, 
a Western denominational school. He was fifteen 
years of age, of medium height, a slender but well 
formed body, rosy cheeks, a peculiar dark, almost 
black eye, and jet black hair always nicely kept. 
At first sight he was called a fine-looking boy, in 
fact, rather handsome ; but to me there was some- 
thing strange in his walk that seemed to indicate a 
weak trait in his character. As he walked he car- 
ried his head slightly forward ; this with a certain 
vibration of the body gave me the impression of the 
sinuous movement of a snake. 

He seemed to enjoy school and did good work ; 
was bright and quick at learning, gentlemanly and 
attentive : his conduct was all that could be 
desired. 

(37) 



38 DIARY OF A 

Soon, however, I heard some of the boys remark 
that John was the biggest Uar in the school ; but it 
was a number of weeks before anything came to me 
by which I could judge for myself. 

One morning about the eighth week of the term, 
he failed to put in an appearance at his classes and 
sent me word by one of the students that he had 
mumps. I did not think he was sick and sent him 
word to be at my office at the close of school in the 
afternoon. 

It happened that I was called away from my 
office just before school closed that afternoon and 
when I returned, the president informed me that 
John had been in to see me and that he was badly 
stiffened up with mumps. 

I asked if he examined John to see if he really 
had mumps. 

He replied that he had made no examination but 
took it for granted as the boy was well wrapped up 
about the neck and face. 

I was still of the opinion that he was playing off 
so sent him word to call at my office before school 
the next morning. He came, stiff-necked and a 
big scarf coiled round and round his neck and 
face. I unwrapped him, straightened up his head, 
told him be was cured and that he could remain for 
the morning work. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 39 

He was completely taken by surprise, not expect- 
ing anything of the kind. I asked him why he had 
done as he had ; what his object was. He replied 
that he wanted to be out of school a few days and 
took that plan. He looked me straight in the eye, 
his eyes slightly squinting and said, •" I lied about 
it and don't know why." 

I talked with him, not a long lecture, but a few 
words to try to find something on which to work, to 
make an impression ; but found nothing. 

He never disagreed with an^i:hing that was said 
and was always sure that he would not do so again, 
but the very next occasion he was as untruthful as 
ever. Still he was kind-hearted, obliging, and 
possessed many good qualities. 

At Christmas we were tempted to send him home 
to stay ; his class work was good but his word could 
not be depended on and we had about given up 
hope of correcting him in this respect; finally, 
however, we decided to try him till the close of 
the year. He came back and remained with us to 
the close of the year in June. 

As I knew him better and studied him more 
closely, I found he never hesitated to tell an un- 
truth even when discovery was certain. There was 
something really pitiful about him in his untruthful- 
ness, a helplessness that was hard to understand. 



40 DAIRY OF A 

When talking with the bo3^s he was untruthful with- 
out knowing it, but sometimes his words showed 
considerable j^lanning. 

In the afternoon of Decoration day of that year, 
I was just leaving the cemetery to go to a friend's 
when one of the boys came to me to know if I had 
seen John, saying that John had received a letter 
to come home at once as his aunt Carrie was dead. 
I asked the boy if he had seen the letter. He said 
that he had or he would not believe it. 

When I returned to the college, John met me at 
some distance from the building, the corners of his 
mouth drawn down, his eyes full of tears, and told 
me that his aunt Carrie was dead and handed me 
the letter. I invited him into my office, then read 
the letter. It was as follows : — 

" Dear John, your aunt Carrie died in Washing- 
ton last week ; will be buried here Thursday. Tell 
Prof. Stableton to send you home on the first train. 
" Your Uncle Charley." 

After reading the letter I looked at John and told 
him that he had written the letter. It was not his 
handwriting, but I felt without question that it was 
his own work. He rose to his feet, so indignant 
that he could scarcely control himself, and asked 
me if I thought he would be so little as to write that 
letter. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 41 

I told him that I thought he wrote it, aud in the 
morning would send a telegram to his uncle and 
prove that I was right. He said, " All right. Pro- 
fessor, do it, aud you will find I am telling you the 
truth this time." 

I requested him to call at my office early the next 
morning to go with me to send the telegram. 

The president said he thought I ought to send the 
boy home at once. 

I said "Never," that if his people would put 
such a boy into my hands and then write him 
instead of writing me, he could not go home, no 
difference who was dead ; that I knew they would 
write me, and that it must be the boy's own work. 

The next morning John was on hand. I asked 
him to bring the horse and buggy from the barn 
and call me at the office window. In a few moments 
he drove up and we started for town. As we were 
driving along I inquired of him which one of the 
men in the post office had given him the letter. 

He told me, adding, "Professor, you will find 
that I am telling the truth this time." 

I almost wavered in my opinion and said that we 
would go to the post office first. I left him in the 
buggy, and went into the post office. No letter 
had been given him. I returned to the buggy. 



42 DIARY OF A 

and as we started off I said, " John, where were 
you when you wrote that letter ? ' ' 

He rephed, " I was in my room." 

" What made you do it? " I inquired. 

He answered, " The Devil." 

Then I said, " I think he did," and we drove 
back to school. 

He seemed greatly relieved and went right to 
work. I did not punish him, — said but few more 
words than I have given above. I had done all 
that I could to help him, but to no avail, and knew 
that no words of mine could make an impression on 
him at that time. 

As he had told a number of the students they 
didn't cease until the end of the year to inquire of 
him about the funeral. When the year closed, he 
left us to return no more. 

The next I heard of him he was in the state 
reform school ; at the present time he is serving a 
term in the state penitentiary. 

These facts concerning his people I gathered ; his 
mother was a cultured. Christian woman and her 
people were of like character ; his father, a man of 
moral worth, and of high standing in his commu- 
nit}^, died when John was a small child. After his 
father's death John fell to the care of his mother 
and an uncle who give him his way in everything. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 43 

Even before his father's death he was a petted 
child whose every whim was humored as he was 
thought very bright. His father left him well 
provided for financially. 

While I do not think that I did him any good, I 
did hold him in check for one year, and outwitted 
him in almost every instance. This was all I was 
capable of doing and it required no little tact. I 
admit failure in his case. I have studied him very 
closely and compared him with many others since 
then and have one or two possible solutions that I 
might offer but will not. I have given the facts as 
I observed them. 



CHAPTER V 



TAD 



I have always taught in co-educational schools 
and know how great care must be exercised on the 
part of the teacher, and how necessary a perfect 
confidence between scholars and teacher is, in order 
that there may be nothing but what is proper in the 
daily mingling of the sexes at the age when the 
sexual passions are developing. 

That some boys and girls "fall in love," so to 
speak, is just as natural as that children exposed 
to the measles take the disease. The problem that 
concerns the teacher is how to nurse them through 
the sickness. 

Whenever I see boys or girls physically developed 

beyond their years, yet mentally backward, I feel 

that they must be carefully guarded for a few 

years until their minds catch up with their bodies. 

(44) 



AVESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 45 

Sometimes it happens, even where the mind develops 
equally with the body, that the young people have 
received a physical inheritance which makes them 
extremely susceptible to the influence of the opposite 
sex. With these two classes teachers need to keep 
in touch. They are not evil in that they are so 
easily affected by the opposite sex, but may easily 
be led into wrong and must be protected. 

If the teacher holds the full confidence of the 
boys and fully comprehends the situation, they will 
pass through the experience in safety ; the same is 
true of the girls. I have never in all my teaching, 
found a case of ' ' falling in love ' ' that any ordinary 
so-called school discipline could cure. 

Tad was almost seventeen years of age when he 
entered our school, a denominational academy. He 
was the son of a Methodist minister. His sister, 
two years younger, entered school at the same time. 
Tad had always been accustomed to the society of 
young people so it was no new thing for him to 
meet young girls and be in their company. 

He was always ready with his work and was 
pleasant though quiet in his manner. He had been 
in school only a few weeks when I noticed that a 
certain young girl seemed the center of attraction 
to him ; but I thought it would be a thing of short 
duration and probably not take his mind from his 



46 DIARY OF A 

work. I was mistaken ; to use Samantha Allen's 
expression : ' ' Love had come to him and it was 
going hard with him," so hard with him that he 
was falling short in his work. I knew him too 
well to sa}^ much to him, but waited. I felt sure a 
change would come soon. 

In the meantime his sister wrote home that Tad 
was so interested in one of the girls that he could 
not study. The father wrote Tad a severe letter 
condemning him for letting the girl take his atten- 
tion. This enraged Tad. He wrote his father a 
sharp reply, then called at my office and told me all 
that had occurred. He was deeply in earnest ; 
said that his father had no right to send him such 
a letter, that he loved the girl and intended to marry 
her some day. 

Now was my time. I asked him if he wanted to 
marry her right away. 

He said : " No ; but some day." 

" Some day you will be of age, then no one can 
hinder you from marrying her," said I, and added : 
" For the past month you have been losing ground 
on account of this affair ; it is time you quit worry- 
ing and go to work ; you must fit yourself to take 
care of her when you do marry her." I told him 
to love her all he wanted to but to be a man and 
not a foolish boy. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 47 

This relieved him. He soon settled down to 
work and before the end of the year he had ceased 
to care for her and she no longer cared for him. 

All this time we guarded them carefully that they 
might not be placed in any uncertain relations, but 
did nothing that they could interpret as an attempt 
to break their friendship. 

Had I bitterly opposed the boy or openly or 
privately upbraided him, there would have been no 
confidence between us, and under such conditions 
I should not wish to be responsible for results. 
While vigilance is necessary, no amount of vigi- 
lance will make up for a want of confidence. 



CHAPTER VI 



SAM 



Sam was thirteen years of age when his people 
moved to our town and he presented himself for 
admission to school. He was very large for his age, 
with a well-formed body, good shapely head, light 
brown hair, honest gray eyes, and a face set in a 
continual grin. The grin was the weakest appear- 
ing thing about him. As I became acquainted with 
him, by talking with him, watching him, and con- 
ferring with his teacher about him, I learned that 
Sam was a boy with almost a man's body, but with 
a child's intellect. 

His father and mother, his older brother and 

sister were excellent people. But within only a 

few weeks after coming to town he had established a 

reputation as the loudest boy on the streets, a wild, 

(48) 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 49 

" harum-scarem " tough, whooping and yelling 
whenever opportunity presented itself. He thus 
lost the respect of the community and was given a 
standing in accord with his conduct. He was so 
boisterous and loud at times on the streets that many 
believed him half crazy. 

At school the conditions were unfortunate alike 
for Sam and his teacher. She had formerly been 
one of the most successful teachers in the school 
but this particular year she was in such poor health 
that she was almost hysterical, and could stand but 
little that grated on her nerves. 

Sam's face was never free from a grin, and he 
was restless and ill at ease. He never seemed to 
study, yet made a fairly good showing in his work. 
He was not wholly to blame, as he needed a steady- 
nerved teacher, while his teacher needed rest. But 
it was a case where the superintendent was power- 
less to make a change before the end of the year. 
There was no other room for the boy and the teacher 
could not be removed. 

Sometimes the teacher cried when talking of 
Sam, he worried her so ; not so much by what he 
did, but because his grinning face and restlessness 
were a continual irritation to her. I advised her to 
give him a seat in the part of the room where he 
could be least seen, and to quit worrying about him. 
4 



50 DIARY OF A 

But under the conditions his year in school was far 
from satisfactory to me or to any one else. 

When farm work began in the spring he told me 
he had secured a job on a farm and was going to 
work. I did not discourage him in it, but encour- 
aged him to be ready for school again in September. 
I thought it best for him to work off some of his 
physical energy, believing that in the coming year he 
could make up all he would lose under existing cir- 
cumstances ; for no one could doubt that the nerv- 
ous state of the teacher affected him unfavorably 
and that his peculiar condition was an irritation to 
her. 

In September he returned, larger, stronger than 
ever, but still boyish. He made me think of a big 
English mastiff pup, overgrown in everything ex- 
cept his intellect, and always ready to play. 

His teacher this year was a steady-nerved woman, 
who came nearer understanding him . He did well 
in his work for a few weeks and then began to lag. 
The teacher labored hard , but no effort on her part 
could keep up his mental activity. She became 
discouraged with him and finally asked what she 
could do or what else she should try. She said 
that to make him do the work of the grade would 
take more time than she gave to a dozen ordinary 
pupils. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 51 

I said : ' ' Let him alone if he does not bother 
you ; let him do what he can when given only the 
attention due him, if you can do it without his dis- 
turbing you and the school." I said further that 
he was developing so fast physically that he seemed 
to have no vital force to furnish mental power, and 
that when he quit growing his mental powers would 
probably strengthen. 

As he did not bother her or the school, she took 
my advice. Of course he did only part of the 
work of the grade. 

Again, when the neighboring farmers wanted 
help for the spring work he dropped out. I favored 
it, thinking he needed something that would give 
him freedom to stretch his rapidly-growing body. 
However, I never let him think that I thought there 
was any question about his returning in September. 
I took quite an interest in him and he knew it. 

That summer, whenever we met, we had a little 
" chat," and incidentally his attention was directed 
to school. 

When September came he began almost where he 
had begun the year before, thus taking two years 
for the grade. While he was still boyish and 
" grinny," there was a marked mental development, 
and he did fairly good work. Sometimes he was 



52 DIARY OF A 

very trying and had to be plainly reminded of his 
place and work. 

The farming fever caught him again a few weeks 
before the close of the spring term. His peoj^le 
were in very moderate circumstances financially, and 
as I knew every dollar he earned went to the home, 
I thought this in itself an education of great value 
to such a boy. 

Before he left I had a talk with him about his 
school standing and explained how important it was 
that he should not miss more than was necessary ; 
that the next year he would be in the second year 
class in the high school, and he would not like to 
fall behind there. After we had considered his 
school work and the necessity of his having a place 
for the summer to earn money, I told him to come 
to school every day that he did not have work ; that 
I would rather have him in school one-half or one- 
fourth of the remaining part of the term than to 
have him miss all of it. 

This pleased him. He went away feeling that he 
was still a part of the school. This was just what 
I wished. He was in school about one-fourth of 
the remaining time, and when the term opened the 
following year he was one of the first in his place. 

Sam was now under the care of another teacher. 
This teacher and I had talked over his case, and 



WESTERN SCHOOOIASTER. 53 

decided that he was now capable of doing good, 
heavy work, and that he must do it. 

Sam knew the teacher was in sympathy with 
him, yet at the same time he knew that she 
would put up with no short work on his part. 
He complained sometimes that she was hard on 
him, but when asked if he wished to be allowed 
to do as he pleased, and then take two years for 
the work he was capable of doing in one, he 
would put himself to the work with renewed in- 
terest. 

His teacher often said that had she a dozen 
like Sam she could not teach. Not that he meant 
to be ugly or disagreeable, but he was still so 
grinny and restless that it drew on a teacher's 
strength just to hold him day by day steadily to 
work. 

This year closed, and it was by far Sam's best 
year's work. In mathematics, particularly, he 
was showing much strength. 

When Sam had been in the high school two 
years he had tamed down on the streets, in fact, 
was much changed, and the j^eople remarked that 
he was becoming a different boy. I never failed 
to speak a good word for him, and felt safe in 
predicting that he would come out right if given 
time. I talked to him freely of his conduct out- 



54 DIARY OF A 

side of school, and he willingly listened to what 
I said, though it was often only a short time 
until he did something rude or rough ; but notwith- 
standing this, he was gaining. Sometimes when I 
spoke strongly in his favor some one would ask me 
what I could see to give me faith in him. I did 
not always try to exjDlain, but said to give him time 
and it would be seen that there was cause for my 
faith. 

One day his mother said to me that they had been 
scolding him at home when he told them to ask me 
about him, — that he knew I would not say he was 
all bad. It pleased me to know that he realized 
that I appreciated the good that was in him, for his 
realization of this was a strong factor to help him 
on to better things. 

Two years more and he would leave the high 
school; but a new trouble beset him. He " fell 
deeply in love " with one of the high school girls. 

We guarded them carefully at school and gave 
no opportunity for their being together except in 
the presence of a teacher. They began to meet 
regularly on the way to school and to walk to school 
together. This would not do, so I talked to them 
privately, explained that it would cause unfavorable 
remarks about the school, and asked that it be not 
indulged in. I said for them to happen once in a 



WESTERN schoolmaster: 55 

while to meet just as others did would be proper, 
but the " happenings " must not come too often; it 
would not do for people along the wa}^ to see them 
regularly walking to school together. After this 
there was no trouble. Once in a while they met 
and came together, but not regularly as before. 
They tried to do as I wished, although it required 
effort for them not to ' ' happen ' ' along about the 
same time. 

It surprised me to see the amount of excellent 
work which they did when 1 knew all the circum- 
stances. At the girl's home was trouble ; her 
parents forbade her having anything to do with 
Sam. They talked and reasoned with her, threat- 
ening to send her away. 

She was not to be moved by such measures ; she 
and Sam met of evenings, walked the streets, and 
they were laying themselves open to unfavorable 
comments. Sam thought her parents were unkind 
and mean to her, and so did she. 

One morning her parents talked so plainly to her 
that when she started to school she left a note 
which stated that she would not be treated so any 
longer and was going to leave home. 

The father found the note soon after she had 
gone to school and went to the high school to see if 
she were there. She was in her place. Sam was 



66 DIARY OF A 

there too. I was at one of the other buildings 
when the father called. He asked to see the prin- 
cipal, and informed her of the note and their 
trouble with the girl at home. 

When the principal told me what had occurred I 
determined at once to see the father and try to 
influence him to deal with the young people in a 
different way. He was only driving them on, and 
serious results might follow. 

That evening I called to see the father. He was 
glad to talk with me, and said that he and his wife 
were at a loss to know what to do next. I told 
him I had been watching the young people very 
closely and could see but one thing for him to do, 
that was to quit opposing the boy and the girl and 
treat them no longer as little children, but as young 
people worthy of some consideration ; to look the 
matter squarely in the face and make the best of 
it ; that while the boy was not the one he would 
choose as a companion for his daughter, he would 
not be able to prevent their doing as they pleased ; 
and it would be better for him to send the young 
man word to come to their home the following even- 
ing and to talk with him. I advised that he tell 
him he could keep company with his daughter, but 
that he must come to her home when he wished to 
see her ; that he could oo with her to church and 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 57 

other public places ; then to ask them both to be 
guarded about being on the street as they had been, 
that in everything their conduct might be above re- 
proach ; to talk plainly, yet kindly, to them. If he 
did this, I believed the affair would die out ; but if 
it did not, Sam was full of energy, and there was a 
great deal more good in him than he was given 
credit for, and the day might come when he himself 
would not be ashamed to own Sam as his son-in- 
law. 

The father said I might be right and he would 
act on my advice. I also agreed to have a talk 
with Sam and tell him what had passed between 
the girl's father and myself, and to advise him as 
might seem best. 

The following morning I had a long conversation 
with Sam and gave him in detail all that we had 
said. He smiled and looked a little ashamed. At 
first I told him I wanted to talk with him about 
something that he might think did not concern me, 
but I believed that when I was through he would 
not feel offended. 

He understood me and said to go on, as anything 
I had to say would be right. He was much pleased 
at what I had done, and said that he had already 
been invited to spend the evening at the girl's 
home. 



58 DIARY OF A 

I counseled him to be a man in the affair, and if 
he cared anything for the girl, and I knew he did, 
not to do anything that would reflect on her or him- 
self, either ; that the way they had been doing was 
hurting both of them ; that above all things he must 
lay aside all ill-feeling he might have against the 
girl's parents. I explained why he should not 
wonder that they were not much in his favor ; that 
they knew how boisterous he had been, and like 
many others, thought him worse than he was, and 
that the parents' feelings were perfectly natural ; 
that he must j^rove to them now that he was worthy 
their respect. 

He left my room smiling, feeling that I had cham- 
pioned his cause better than he could have done it 
himself. 

And now, after several years have passed, no one 
has any cause to regret the arrangements that were 
thus made. They both remained in school two 
years and graduated. Sam's last two years' work 
was fine, and he was a good scholar when he grad- 
uated. He is now a teacher. The sentiment in the 
town has largely changed in his favor. He is rec- 
ognized as an upright, honorable, energetic young 



CHAPTER VII 



MARK 



Mark had a thin, pale face, shoulders cramped in 
upon a hollow chest, and a body and limbs whose 
clothing never suggested the outline of a muscle ; 
restless and inattentive, but not unusually dull. 
He was childish, sometimes so childish that it 
seemed to indicate mental weakness ; yet in his 
studies he was only slightly behind those of his 
own age (thirteen) and was doing fairly good work. 
However, it required no little effort on the part of 
his teacher to keep him from idling away his time. 
He would, if permitted, spend hours playing with 
nothing more than a string and a bit of paper ; not 
interrupting those about him, but frittering away 
the hours in play so simple that it called forth no 
activity of the mind. 

His fourteenth year was but a repetition of his 

(59) 



60 DIARY OF A 

thirteenth, except that his childishness was more 
noticeable. His physical condition was unchanged 
and growth seemed almost checked. This year he 
finished the work of the eighth grade. He was not 
the poorest in the class neither was he one of the 
best. 

During his fifteenth year, he was less able to do 
mental work and was more frail physically. 

During his sixteenth year, he was very sluggish 
mentally and physically, and as much a child as at 
thirteen. He could not take all the regular studies 
of his grade, so his work was lightened, but still he 
could not do it well. He was very weak during 
the spring term ; and so sluggish that he would 
sometimes unconsciously fall asleep even while 
trying to listen to a class explanation. 

This unfortunate condition was not the result of 
any personal habits, as he was carefully guarded in 
this respect. He seemed to have come to a point 
where it was a question whether or not his vitality 
could carry him farther. 

His father now decided to give him a year of 
freedom from school or restraint of any kind, in 
hope that he might gain physical and mental 
strength. Mark spent the year just as he pleased, 
visiting, hunting, reading, lying around doing 
nothing, with no aim, no ambition. An idle listless 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 61 

year ; probably a profitable year to him for it 
seemed he could do nothing but rest. 

In the fall of his eighteenth year he again entered 
school, but, while somewhat improved in health, 
was not capable of doing a full year's w^ork. The 
first half of the following summer he did nothing ; 
was without interest in anything. 

"Past eighteen years of age," said his father, 
' ' and a mere boyish boy ; he will never amount to 
anything." 

The father was not now so patient as formerly 
with Mark, and upbraided him for his worthless- 
ness. One day at this time, the father said to me : 
" My wife and I have lost all patience with Mark 
and to-day I told him he was nothing but a block- 
head, and never would amount to anything. We 
cannot understand why he is so worthless." 

I counseled him to be careful or he might do his 
boy great wrong ; that for some reason the physical 
and mental development of the boy seemed arrested ; 
that upbraiding him for what he could not help 
might so discourage him as to ruin him forever ; 
that what he most needed was sympathy, and an 
expression of faith in him to help him to keep up a 
cheerful frame of mind ; and that these should come 
from his home friends ; that there was yet time for 
the boy to make a man. 



62 DIARY OF A 

The father in reply could only express a hope 
that I understood Mark better than he did and that 
my faith in the final outcome would prove to be 
well-founded. 

Several weeks later, just a few days before the 
opening of the annual session of the county teachers' 
institute, Mark called on me to ask me what I 
thought of his attending the county institute and in 
the course of our conversation told me that he had 
decided to teach a country school that fall. I was 
pleased to see him planning to do something and 
encouraged him to attend. He was present every 
day, wide-a-wake, ready to catch every suggestion 
that fell from the lips of the instructors, and very 
happy in it all. I looked at him, no longer a boy. 
The rounded muscles, the full chest, such as had 
not seemed possible, and the bright eye ; the vigor- 
ous thoughts of early manhood, told in no uncertain 
language that be " had been born again," and was 
a new person mentally and physically. " When I 
became a man I put away childish things," was 
literally verified in his case. 

The father met me one day of the second week 
of the institute and said that he wished to thank me 
for so awakening his son. I laid no claim to the 
" awakening " power. The boy was changed from 
no effort of mine. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 63 

The faith that I had had in Mark was not born 
of intuition but was the result of the observation 
of a number of somewhat similar cases. Mark's 
apparent development was completely arrested for 
several years ; and then in a few weeks the wonder- 
ful change was accomplished. Yesterday a boy, 
to-day a man. 

I have no explanation to give. Mark's and one 
other case that I will relate, have suggested a 
question : could their labored and long-delayed de- 
velopment be due to inherited constitutional weak- 
ness ? There were strong indications of tuberculosis 
on the mother's side in the case of Mark. Could 
it be that an inherited weakness made it hard for 
the body to gather force to accomplish the great 
change of puberty, and so caused the existing con- 
ditions ? 

I only ask the question. This much I do know : 
teachers cannot too carefully deal with such j^oung 
people. The disappointment of parents too often 
shuts off sympathy at home, and teachers, looking 
upon them as weaklings physically and mentally, 
hope only for them to drop out of school. Young 
teachers, especially, look upon such cases as hope- 
less objects on whom it is a waste to spend time. 
We who are older and have observed and studied 
these things have seen too many miracles wrought 



64 DIARY OF A 

by the new ' ' psycho-physiological birth ' ' to treat 
in a slighting manner any of these that so much 
need attention. 

When Mark was twenty-five years of age, he 
filled a responsible business position and was quite 
a literary student, devoting a few hours each day 
to a chosen line of study. He was far superior to 
many of the boys who in their teens outstripped him 
in the race. As his father expressed it, " There is 
no young man in our community the superior of my 
son ; he has no bad habits ; is mentally and phy- 
sically sound ; and is a clear-headed business man." 

The causes of such arrested development properly 
belong to the work of specialists in other lines ; but 
the plain, practical, uncommon common-sense plan 
of teaching and training these j-oung people must 
be sought out by the teacher. 

Into this problem three factors must enter ; first, 
we must not lose faith in the possible outcome ; 
second, we must win and hold the confidence of 
these boys ; and, third, we must not discourage 
them nor cause them to lose the little faith they may 
have in themselves. 



CHAPTER VIII 



DICK 



Dick came from one of the best homes in the 
community, a home where the children were dearly 
loved by both parents ; a home where every possible 
care was given to the physical and mental welfare 
of the children ; yet it was a home where there was 
lung trouble on the father's side, and in which 
tuberculosis finally made its appearance. 

Dick attended school regularly from six years of 
age to twelve. Then, on the advice of the family 
physician, he was permitted to do as he pleased, go 
to school or stay at home. He was not sick, but 
weak, and needed to be in the open air. He was 
too deeply interested in school to give it up entirely, 
so was made welcome in school whenever he felt like 
being there, even though he were present but half 
the time. 

6 (65) 



GO DIARY OF A 

Dick had never been quick at learning, and hence 
was not so well advanced as most boys of his age. 
His parents were sensible in this regard, and did 
not wish him " pushed " along for the sake of keep- 
ing with neighbor boys of his own age. They were 
in close touch with the teachers, and talked freely 
with them, and thus aided much in dealing with 
Dick. Without the co-operation of parents such 
cases become very annoying. 

From twelve years of age to eighteen was a try- 
ing time for Dick. A part of this time he was 
physically unfit for the school-room, and his mind 
was much as his body ; yet he was never willing 
to drop out of school entirely. The family phy- 
sician said that Dick w^as constitutionally weak, 
and might or might not grow stronger. 

Dick was one of the best of boys in his inten- 
tions, always trying to do just the right thing ; but 
he was restless, and could not study without mak- 
ing a noise. Often when he became too restless, 
his teacher would send him on some little errand, or 
give him work at the blackboard ; anything to bring 
his muscles into plaj^, and thus rest him. He never 
suspected that the errand, the work, or whatever it 
might be, was simply a means of quieting him. 

If he went out to run or play at violent exercise 
of any kind, he was so wrought up for the next 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 67 

half-honr after he came in that he could do nothing 
but fidget and grin. Some days he would be 
grinny, almost hysterical, ready to laugh at any 
little thing that happened, and scarcely able to stop 
laughing after having once begun. The only hope 
at such times was to center his attention on some- 
thing of interest, and thus quiet him down. 

In his seventeenth year he developed more rapidly 
in mental power, but along with this came a peculiar 
nervous state. He would sit atone end of his seat, 
swaying his body backwards and forwards from his 
hips as a fulcrum, rubbing one hand on one knee, 
unconscious of everything around him, all the while 
doing good mental work. If not permitted to sway 
his body thus, he accomplished but little. Some 
such movement of the body seemed absolutely neces- 
sary to mental activity. 

Do not misunderstand me, he had never been 
encouraged, or even permitted to study in this 
manner ; but now he could do no mental work 
unless some part of his body were in motion. As 
his manner became very annoying to those about 
him, he was given a seat in the rear part of the 
room where he could be seen by but few and was 
permitted to study even though somewhat noisily. 

During the first half of his eighteenth year, he be- 
gan to be recognized as one of the best thinkers of 



68 DIARY OF A 

his class, but he was still a boy with the instincts 
of a boy ; but the year brought him great changes, 
and by the end of the year he was fast taking on 
the indications of early manhood. 

As this change came about, much of his restless- 
ness disappeared and his whole manner greatly 
improved. The young children that were com- 
panions for him the first half of the year were 
dropped and he sought those nearer his own age. 

Dick graduated from the high school when past 
nineteen years of age, fairly strong physically, a 
young man of good average ability, and of more 
than ordinarily good, common sense. 

From twelve years of age to eighteen the parents 
were filled with greatest concern for him, and the 
mother would often say when speaking of him: 
" Poor boy, what will become of him." The 
father was more hopeful, and said that he himself 
had developed very slowly and so he would not lose 
faith in his boy. 

There were at least two years in the life of Dick 
and also in that of Mark, when many teachers 
would have ' ' worked ' ' them out of the high school 
and felt that they were ridding the schools of weak 
ones that were not worth the time given them. I 
say would have " worked " them out. 

I will explain : last year, in talking with a high 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 69 

school principal in one of our large cities, he said 
that they had a great many enter their high school 
who were not very strong mentally, and that they 
got rid of them by putting on such a pressure of 
work that the weaker ones were glad to leave the 
school ; and thus the teachers were saved much 
trouble, and the standard of the graduates was 
kept very high. I have no doubt that Mark and 
Dick would have been " worked " out very early in 
their high school courses had they been under this 
principal. 

I do not, object to putting a fair pressure of work 
on high school students. I would just as soon hope 
to learn to skate by sitting on the ice as to hope to 
get the intellectual power that comes from high 
school training by sitting in the high school. 

The man who is hauling coal and has two teams, 
one of heavy draft horses that can draw two tons 
at a load, the other of ordinary horses that can 
draw but one, does not load up his lighter team 
with two tons and thereby make it impossible for it 
to do anything ; but to the heavy team he gives two 
tons and to the lighter team but one ton, and both 
work equally well. While it is true that it will take 
the lighter team twice as long to haul the coal, yet 
when the coal is hauled it is just as well hauled as 
if the heavy team had hauled it. 



70 DIARY OF A 

So the wise high school principal will not strive 
to ' ' work out ' ' these weaker ones by giving them 
the work that only the stronger ones can do ; but 
will try to know the ability of each one and then will 
give such work as each can do, and do well, all the 
time trying to interest more deeply everyone in the 
work of the school. 

The boy that can carry but a part of the work 
this year may be stronger next year ; but, even if 
he is not, in the fable of old it was the tortoise and 
not the hare that won the race. 

We superintendents and principals are not ex- 
perts in unfolding the futures of the boys at the 
high school age. We must work carefully. We 
would better' give opportunities to ten boys that 
fail to develop, rather than to "work out" one 
boy that might develop. 



CHAPTER IX 



CHAP 



I wish to give sketches of three boys that for 
some reason I associate together in my mind ; three 
boys, in every way so different from each other, 
each with snch a strongly marked individuaUty, 
that they were interesting studies to me. 

Chap at thirteen years of age was a perfect 
dynamite bomb. Muscle and brain were both sur- 
charged with energy. He did nothing by halves ; 
lessons and manual labor were both put through 
with a vim that was delightful to see. No one in 
his grade ranked above him ; no boy could curry a 
horse and hitch him to a buggy more quickly than 
he ; no boy could swing onto a broncho and skim 
over the prairie more gracefully than he. The 
rough, wild life of the cow-boy, suited him. An 
old sombrero, a blouse, and a pair of overalls held 

(71) 



72 DIARY OF A 

op by one suspender, an old wagoii with a broncho 
team to drive at break-neck speed, and he was 
happy. 

Yet when occasion demanded. Chap could be a 
perfect gentleman. He simply bubbled over with 
life. A hip, hip, hurrah! and away on a broncho! 
This high, wild life, was a safety valve for his sur- 
plus energy. 

Thus far in Chap's school work he and his 
teachers had gotten along well. Sometimes like a 
frisky colt he needed to be reined in, still he and his 
teachers were always on good terms and happy in 
the work. But now as he passed to the ninth 
grade, new conditions met him, and he himself was 
reaching a more dangerous point where fun seemed 
worth more than all else. 

The ninth grade teacher this year was inexperi- 
enced in the work, but having had two or three 
years of college training, was supposed to be in her 
educational qualifications the best prepared of the 
applicants for the position. When I found that it 
would be necessary to place her in charge of the 
grade, I feared the results. 

She was of a gentle unsuspecting nature, and her 
voice lacked that decision so essential to good dis- 
cipline in the grammar and early high school grades. 

Conditions were thus unfortunate for Chap. He 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 73 

was ready to detect any weaknesses on the part of 
his teacher and to make the most of them. All 
went well for a short time, when the trouble began. 

Chap was a leader, and so sharp and cunning 
that he could shoot shot, or scatter a handful of 
snapping match heads, or with a quivering move- 
ment of his legs shake the floor, and yet escape de- 
tection. He was proud of the standing he was fast 
gaining among the pupils for bringing disorder into 
the room. Even the best were "falling from 
grace " and joining his standard. Children are 
born " hero-worshipers." He showed what he 
thought of his teacher one day when he said, " Miss 
vShort is a fine lady, but she's too good to teach 
school ; why, she can't even boss me." 

His disorderly conduct at school had a bad effect 
on him at home, and while he had never been easily 
controlled at home, he now became so restless, al- 
most defiant, that his parents were much concerned. 

A word as to the home, while not strictly a part 
of this story, throws side-lights on the boy. Chap's 
mother was an excellent Christian woman of more 
than ordinary strength of character. The father 
was a man of good intentions and very active in 
what he took to be his line of duty, but he did not 
cultivate the friendship of his boys. As Chap came 
to the critical period in a boy's life the father was 



74 DIARY OF A 

far from him. In talking with the father one day 
he said to me : " I am kept so busy with my busi- 
ness and church work, that I do not have time to 
keep up acquaintance with my family. I scarcely 
know them." 

I felt that what he said was unfortunately too 
true, and I wondered what would be the outcome 
of such neglect. I do not question his intentions, 
but I seriously question his wisdom. 

Now, when Chap so much needed to feel a real 
fatherly love and friendship, there was no strong 
cord to hold him. The father could help the 
teacher but little in managing the boy. 

After a few weeks a change was made in the 
teacher of the ninth grade, so that the remainder of 
the year was much improved. Still the year as a 
whole was not one to interest Chap, and as spring 
came on he grew restless, the school-room was too 
narrow for him ; he longed for the freedom of 
unrestrained out-door life. 

At the opening of school the following Septem- 
ber, Chap was ready for whatever was to come, 
work or fun, no difference so there was plenty of it. 
Luckily for him he was now under a teacher that 
knew him and felt herself equal to him whatever 
might come up, a teacher who appreciated and 
admired his vigorous life. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 75 

Chap respected her from the first. There was 
that something in her very presence that com- 
manded his respect. To refuse her request never 
entered his mind. During the entire year he was 
never reproved. . He seemed happy, and often, as I 
looked at him, he made me think of a prancing colt 
at the end of a rope held kindly yet firmly in the 
hand of his master. 

The teacher that knows now to let such a boy 
prance just enough to keep him in good spirits yet 
holds him from breaking away, is a power for good 
with the boys of this grade. The whole future 
school life of many a boy depends on who is his 
teacher at this time in his life. 

Chap had once been one of the best declaimers 
in his class, but now he was too self-conscious to 
do well, so he was excused from declaiming. He 
had been a good penman from the time he began to 
write; now, while his writing was still good, the 
lines were irregular and somewhat careless looking. 
He was not upbraided for becoming careless. His 
enlarging muscles were a little unruly; time would 
give him complete control of them. A little 
patience on the part of the teacher was all that 
was needed. 

A year passed and there was not an un- 
certain stroke in Chap's writing ; his self -con- 



76 DIARY OF A 

sciousness had left him and he was glad to declaim 
again. 

Chap is interesting to me chiefly as a boy where 
there seemed to be at no time any lack of either 
mental or physical activity. He never seemed to 
relax for a moment. If be were not studying, 
energy was not wanting, but simply diverted to 
other channels. When he knew he must study, he 
could center his attention on the subject before him 
and be oblivious to everything else about him. 

Chap studied less out of school than most pupils, 
or he could have finished the high school course in 
a much shorter period than four years. 

At eighteen he graduated from the high school, 
vigorous mentally and physically, and with energy 
that promised much for his future. 

This boy, with a bold, daring spirit, every nerve 
and muscle throbbing with intense life, needed a 
teacher that could appreciate that this vigorous life 
was in itself good ; that could make the boy feel 
that she was not suspicious of him as one who 
would do wrong, and at the same time one who 
would cause him to understand that fun could not 
go beyond bounds in her school. 

He had a contempt for a gentle, unskilled teacher 
that thought that boys ought to be too good to have 
fun by interrupting a school. He believed that a 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 77 

boy would have fun even if he had it by making 
sport of the teacher. Helplessness on the part of 
the teacher did not appeal to him in a very strong 
way, or as he said, " I did feel sorry for her but it 
was lots of fun to see the boys and girls all laughing, 
and the teacher so helpless she couldn't do any- 
thing." 

Some may say that boys ought not to be so. All 
I can say is the Lord made them, He knows ; and 
the teacher must take them as they are. 



CHAPTER X 



WILL 



Will bad beeu a fair-skinned, white-headed lad 
up to the age of fifteen when he suddenly changed 
into an " almost " young man with a delicate com- 
l^lexion, light hair, and shapely body that indicated 
physical health and strength. He was fond of the 
same sports that Chap was fond of but not in the 
same dashing, reckless way. 

The change from a boy to a young man came 
over him just as he entered the high school. Always 
slow mentally, he now became slower than ever, 
and so self-conscious that but a word made his pink 
cheeks crimson. 

He was painfully slow but stuck to his work with 
a perseverance that was worth more than mere in- 
tellectual quickness. I sometimes thought were I 
(78) 






WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 79 

in his place I should be strongly tempted to give up 
the idea of a high school education. One thing 
was in his favor, after he once learned a thing it 
was his so that when a subject was completed he 
often knew much more than many who had done 
much better than he in the recitations during the 
term. He was never absent from school, never 
failed to be present at a recitation and thus kept 
the lessons connected from day to day. 

Will was fortunate in his home, father and mother 
both deeply interested in him and in close touch 
with him. The father, in particular, gave him 
much of his time, was companionable with him, and 
held his confidence. 

Both parents were sensible people, and I could 
talk freely with them. They understood their boy, 
knew how slow he was in his work, and believed 
that it was his peculiar way of developing and did 
not fret and worry because he was not other than 
he was. 

There had been a time when he was in the lower 
grades when they thought that possibly the teacher 
was at fault, but they visited the school and found 
that the boy was slow from no fault of the teacher. 
From that time on they held him to his regular 
school work at home and thus supplemented the 
work at school. They knew how to hold him to 



80 DIARY or A 

his work and yet not do his work for him and thus 
weaken him. 

This home study, rightly directed, was the thing 
that made it possible for him to pass from grade to 
grade year after year. He was so strong physically 
that his parents had no fear of injuring him by 
requiring this regular home-study even at an age 
when children ordinarily should not study out of 
school hours. I doubt if he would ever have 
entered the high school had not such care been 
given him. 

In his high school work his parents were not dis- 
gusted with either boy or teachers but said that as 
long as he was working faithfully and interestedly, 
and making a medium standing in his class, they 
were satisfied. 

The second year in the high school was almost a 
repetition of the first. His habits of application 
formed in the lower grades, were now his stay. In 
this laborious way he completed the high school 
course, the last two years not, possibly, quite so 
slow as the first. 

I have seen many boys of this slow mentality, if 
I may so call it, drop out of school because of lack 
of co-operation between parents and teachers. 
Parents, unwiUing to believe that their boys are not 
so quick at their work as most other children, are 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 81 

too often ready to la}- the waut of advancement to 
the slackness of the teachers and after a time to be- 
come prejudiced against teachers and permit the 
boys to drop out of school. Such bo3^s are safe 
only when parents and teachers have such an un- 
derstanding that they can counsel together concern- 
ing the best interests of the boys. 

When parents ask why their boy does not advance 
as some other boy, or why he seems to be the poor- 
est in his class, there is only one thing to do, state 
the facts if the boy is unusually slow ; but state 
them very carefully or offense will be given. That 
a boy is slow does not necessarily imply that he 
does not possess a good mind. Early York cabbage 
planted in May head out in June and the heads 
are the size of a quart cup ; but Flat Dutch cab- 
bage planted in May head out in November and 
the heads are the size of a half -bushel measure. 

There are other heads that grow the same way. 

6 



CHAPTER XI 



HARRY 



Harry was the seventh son and had he been 
the seventh daughter, the old saying that the 
seventh daughter is gifted, would have been veri- 
fied in this case. He was a beautiful, little, red- 
headed fellow of eleven years when he entered 
the high school ; so boyish-looking, and yet so 
manly, that he at once won the admiration of the 
whole school. 

He seemed made of finer clay than most children ; 
a body that a sculptor might vainly try to repro- 
duce ; a gracefully poised head ; and a clear gray 
eye from which peeped forth a soul all alive to 
higher things. 

He cared less for a broncho than either Chap or 
Will, but enjoyed base-ball, skating, and other 
manty sports. At home Harry was a student no 
. (82) 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 83 

less than at school, yet no one could call him a 
book-worm. 

When Harry stood up at the side of some " six- 
footer " to recite, he looked diminutive, indeed; 
but when he had finished reciting, he had so 
thoroughly treated the topic that no other member 
of the class could add thereto. Did some pupil 
eighteen or nineteen years of age fail to recite, the 
little fellow was ready to fill in the break. Not 
offensively putting himself forward, not in a bigoted 
way, as if proud of his own strength, but so uncon- 
sciously that no one ever thought of being jealous 
of him, though he far surpassed them all. 

He was never called to account for improper con- 
duct. Were you to ask what we did with such 
a boy, my answer would be that we directed him 
in his studies and left him to himself. 

From year to year Harry grew as an ordinary 
boy, physically not at all beyond his years, and 
when just past fourteen, still in knee-pants, grad- 
uated from the high school as fine a scholar as ever 
went out from the school. When I say he was not 
at all developed physically beyond his years, I do 
not mean that his physique was not what it should 
be for a boy of fourteen, for he had fine physique 
for a boy of his age ; in fact, he was one of the 
best specimens of physical vigor in the class. 



84 DIARY OF A 

After graduating from the high school, Harry 
spent one or two years as delivery boy for a store, 
then entered a university, where he is a student 
to-day. 

Some may say he graduated from the high school 
too young, that he was pushed, and should have 
been held back. 

I do not think so. Did you ever walk with a 
person who walked so slowly that it made you tired 
to walk with him ? Then you ought to appreciate 
something of the irksomeness of marching four 
years lock-step with those who can take only one 
step to your two. The nerve-wear that comes from 
holding some boys and girls back is equally as in- 
jurious, it seems to me, as that which comes to 
others from unduly pushing them forward. 

It is true Harry did the work of the school in a 
much shorter time than most boys and girls require, 
but I fail to see why he should not when he could 
do it with no undue effort on his part. I admit 
that he is an unusual case, an extreme one, if you 
wish ; but what was right in his case is right in 
every case, that is to know the boy and try to give 
each individual boy the work that seems best suited 
to him. 

This is my object in bringing these three cases 
together, to show that the school work, so far as we 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 85 

were able to judge, was suited to each individual 
boy's needs. Will, the slow one, was not found 
fault with for not possessing the same mental pre- 
cocity that marked Harry, but his industry and 
perseverance were so appreciated, even though his 
progress was slow, that he never felt himself one 
whit less worthy than Harry. Chap, while not 
precocious, possessed w^hat I have called, possibly 
incorrectly, a vigorous intellect, but lacked that 
stick-tuitiveness and dogged perseverance that in 
Will amounted to almost genius. The work of no 
one of these three could have been exchanged for 
that of one of either of the others without a serious 
misfit. 

All three of the boys are to-day in higher institu- 
tions of learning and so far as I am informed of 
their work are as markedly different as when in the 
high school. 

This fact presses itself home to me more and 
more, that teaching is after all a hand-to-hand, in- 
tellect- to-intellect, heart-to-heart contact with in- 
dividuals, and that in all this direct work a good 
grain of common business sense must be exercised. 
Classes are necessary in the movement of school 
work, but the teacher who stops short of a knowl- 
edge of individuals must remain more or less a 
failure. 



CHAPTER XII 



TOM 



Tom came to us at fifteen years of age, a tall 
angular boy, a large Roman nose, one eye slightly 
crossed, very uncouth in his manner, awkward and 
ungainly in his movement. His home was in the 
country, eight miles from town. The first year he 
was with us he rode a broncho back and forth, 
morning and evening. Of a number of boys in his 
father's family, he was the only one that aspired to 
an education. 

He had been in school but a short time before we 
discovered that he had a keen intellect. He was 
always prepared with his lessons. The scholars 
soon gave him the recognition due to superior intel- 
lectual strength, and, unpolished country boy that 
he was, he was treated with deference by all. 

One year in the high school greatly improved 
(86) 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 87 

him. His hair, his neck-tie, and his shoes were no 
longer ' ' unknown quantities ' ' but had passed from 
the X, y, z, to the a, b, c, of his equation ; and his 
manners were more changed than his dress. 

He was in the high school three years. He not 
only did the three years' work and did it well, but 
he also read a great many valuable books from the 
library. He was always improving his spare mo- 
ments with a book. He read more good books than 
any other member of the high school, during the 
three years he was a member of the school. 

During the last two years he was in the high 
school, he worked for his board and lived in town. 
An elderly couple gave him a home for doing their 
chores. It was a good home, the work was light, 
and he had plenty of time for study. 

In a high school where there are many of only 
ordinary ability, it is, to say the least, rather inter- 
esting to meet such a one as Tom. One who seems 
to take in great " chunks " of information and to 
digest them as easily as if they had been ground to 
meal. 

He made himself felt in almost every line of 
school work. In the debating society he was a 
leader, and developed considerable ability as a 
speaker. He made use of every available means to 
improve himself. 



SS DIARY OF A 

Thus busy at work he moved along till the latter 
half of his senior year. Coming from the country 
and not being a member of any of the little social 
cliques that so often cause jealousies among town 
girls and boys, he was the recipient of honors that 
otherwise might have gone elsewhere. Now was 
the time for electing the valedictorian for commence- 
ment. His class-mates by unanimous vote elected 
him to the position. 

He had prepared his oration, and the close of the 
term was near at hand. What was my surprise and 
disappointment to have a friend come to me and tell 
me that Tom had been guilty of forging a check a 
few days before. He had forged it at one of the 
banks on the old gentleman with whom he was 
living. 

The friend could not give me the particulars, but 
thought I ought to know it as it was known by a 
number of persons and was fast spreading over the 
town. 

'' What ought I to do! " was the question that 
came to me. I must decide quickly. If true, I 
could not feel that it would be right for him to hold 
the position of highest honor on commencement 
evening. 

I soon decided that I would go to him, tell him 
what I had heard and ask him to tell me what had 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 89 

been done. I was sure he would trust me as a 
friend, and that whatever mistake he had made or 
wrong he had done, he would talk with me and that 
thus I could help him to do what would be best 
for him and best for all. 

Humiliated, almost crushed, with tears streaming 
down his face, he told me his story. The old gen- 
tleman with whom he lived had money in one of the 
banks, and when he wanted some for use, would 
have Tom fill out a check, take it to the bank and 
bring him the money. Tom had done this often, 
but one day the temptation came to write the check 
for more than the old gentleman wanted and keep 
out a part for himself. As he did most of the old 
gentleman's business, it would never be discovered. 
He yielded to the temptation and kept out the 
money. 

This was several weeks before and no one had 
suspected that anything was wrong until the old 
gentlemen's son came to visit him and in lookino: 
after his father's business at the bank, found one 
check that did not tally with its stub. 

This called for an investigation. Tom confessed, 
made good the amount, and was forgiven and re- 
tained in the home. This is the story as given me 
])y Tom and I found it to be true. 

I felt sorry for him, could forgive him the wrong- 



90 DIARY OF A 

doing but could not prevent the humiliation that 
must necessarily follow. Could he, should he be 
permitted to hold the prominent place on the class 
program after having committed such an offense? 
Would it be for his good even if others were not 
considered? I felt it must not be. 

I told him as kindly as I could that I thought it 
would be in place for him to tender his resignation 
as valedictorian of the class ; that he could write it 
out and I would present it to the class ; that I would 
interview the members of the board of education, 
some of whom had already heard of what had hap- 
pened, and ask them to grant him the privilege of 
graduating ; and that since he had made restitution, 
I would sign his diploma, hoping that this one 
wrong would prove a lesson-. It was hard for him, 
it was no easy task for me, yet I could see no other 
way. 

His class-mates were called together, the mat- 
ter was laid before them. I told them how I felt 
and what I thought ; asked them to consider it 
carefully, with a kindly feeling for the offender, 
then to tell me what they thought would be the 
right thing to do ; that not only their actions but 
mine too would be largely governed by what they 
thought. There was no ugly spirit in the meeting, 
all felt that they must help render a decision and 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 91 

that they must not make a mistake. They accepted 
his resignation and elected another to the place, but 
they did it in such a way as not to make him feel 
that he was cast off. 

I interviewed the board. All felt that his offense 
was a very serious one for a bright young man of 
eighteen, but as it was his first, so far as we knew, 
they granted my request in his behalf. They were 
willing to give him every chance to redeem himself. 

Commencement night Tom sat humiliated while 
another filled the place that had been his, but his 
stepping down won for him a sympathy that made 
all kind in feeling toward him. All felt that he had 
had justice tempered with mercy. 

Probably the story is not worth the telling ; but 
teachers who have not been through similar experi- 
ences, do not know how heavily such things draw 
upon one's sympathies, and how difficult it is to deal 
justly and yet so wisely that no violence is done to 
any one's sense of right. Here is where many 
high school principals and teachers fall short ; they 
do what they believe to be right, but for want of 
tact and a close sympathy with the scholars, they 
are not able to look at the offense from the stand- 
point of the girls and boys, and so fail to meet the 
requirements of the young people's sense of 
justice. 



92 DIAKY OF A 

After graduating, Tom taught country schools 
for a few years ; built uj) a good reputation as a 
teacher of ungraded schools ; in all his dealings, 
conducted himself as a man of honor ; saved his 
money, entered a higher institution of learning, 
from which he graduated with honor, and is to-day 
a promising young man in professional life. 

Whether or not I dealt wisely with him, you must 
judge. He trusted me through it all and we are 
still warm friends. 

This instance and a number of others coming 
under my observation in which boys of his age 
placed in responsible positions where they handled 
money for other persons and were not strictly 
honest, have caused these questions to come into 
my mind : "Is there anything in the peculiar condi- 
tion of boys' minds at this age that renders many 
of them more liable to yield to the temptation to 
steal than at other times? *' "If there is, will it, 
too, be of a transitory nature like most of the ex- 
periences of adolescence, and if not permitted to 
develop itself by indulgence, in time pass away 
without leaving any permanent effect on the 
character ? ' ' 



CHAPTER XIII 



HENRY 



Henry, a large, raw-boned boy of nineteen years 
of age, presented himself at the high school one 
morning at the opening of the spring term and 
asked to be received with the privilege of taking 
certain studies he had selected rather than the reg- 
ular course as he was to be in the school one term 
only. I saw at a glance that he was selecting those 
studies that would fit him to take the teacher's 
examination, and as I was glad to have him inter- 
ested in school granted his request. 

He settled down to his work with a determination 
that meant the mastery of every lesson ; but day 
after day as he sat and worked or even when recit- 
ing there was something of a distressed look about 
him, a kind of a stern, hard-set expression in his 
face that made me pity him. I could not look at 

(93) 



94 DIARY OF A 

him without f eehng that he was alone in the school ; 
that outside the work there was no pleasure for him 
there. In fact, so stern and set was his face that 
he almost repelled any advances that were made. 

Most of his recitation work at this time was 
under one teacher and his manner of reciting was 
such that she felt that he was always questioning 
whether or not she knew her work. Finally one 
day in mental arithmetic, after she had explained a 
problem he spoke out very abruptly and said that 
the solution was not«correct. She, without seem- 
ing to notice his disrespect to her, simply asked the 
class to please look over the solution very carefully 
before the next day as she was sure the solution 
was a correct one. Henry scowled and looked 
more forbidding than ever but said nothing. 

The next morning before school was called, 
Henry spoke to the teacher and said, " You are 
right in your solution of that problem, I know you 
are right. I was wrong but I have studied it until 
I understand it now." 

From that time on he presented a different atti- 
tude toward the teacher ; he had all confidence in 
her so that she instead of being annoyed b}^ him as 
she had been, was glad to have him in her classes ; 
but he was still the same unhappy, stoical looking 
young person as he sat at study in the assembly 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 95 

room, and in nothing did he seem to have any part 
with the other scholars. 

I made a number of attempts to talk with him, at 
first to no purpose. He was in school several weeks 
before I knew much more of him than that he was 
an unhappy-appearing, hard-working country boy 
who rode a pony to and from school morning and 
evening. Finally one of the school-boys told me 
that Henry was one of a large family of boys and 
that he had served a term in the State Reform 
School. This explained, or seemed to explain 
Henry's peculiar manner and also the fact 
that the other scholars paid but little attention 
to him. 

My interest in him was now deeply aroused and 
I determined to come into touch with him in some 
way. 

As the weeks went by he improved in his work 
so that his teacher often commented on it and said 
that he was such a student that he ought to finish 
the hisfh school course. When I saw how he could 
do the work, I too felt that he should try to arrange 
his work with a view to completing the course. I 
had a long talk with him, told him of the good 
reports of his work and after he opened himself up 
and was interested in talking with me, told him that 
if it were at all possible he ought to plan to be in 



9n DIARY OF A 

school until he could complete the high school 
course 

" Why, I have never thought of such a thing," 
said he, "I am too old." '^ How old are you? " 
said I. " I'm nineteen years old, and I could never 
be in school three years more." " No ; I can't do 
it," said he. " But you ought to and you would 
like to if you could? " continued I. 

He admitted that he was really enjoying school 
and that he would like to complete the course if 
such a thing were possible, but thought he was too 
old. 

I knew his mind was opening up to the possibil- 
ity of the thing and that he must have a little time 
to think it over, and that I must not try to force 
him to a decision, as he did his own thinking. 
However, I saw that he was much pleased to know 
that we cared to have him become a member of the 
school looking forward to graduation, and his face 
brightened. 

I could now talk with him and made it a point to 
cultivate his acquaintance. Before the close of the 
term he said to me : "I think I'll take your advice 
and stay in the school till I graduate, I'll be pretty 
old when I get through but I'll know a little some- 
thing and I do like the school." 

By the close of the spring term he had eptablished 



AVESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 97 

the fact that he was a good student and this in itself 
gained for him a certain respect among the other 
students ; but his stoical, forbidding manner, and 
his having served a term in the state reformatory 
kept him from mingling freely with them. 

The following September Henry was again in his 
place in school, anxious to arrange his work with 
a view to completing the course. This year he 
worked so faithfully, accomplished so much, and 
was so honest and upright in all his ways, that he 
fast won the high regard of the entire school ; and 
when he entered the debating society and proved to 
the boys that he was a match for their strongest 
debaters, he quickly became a leader and was 
selected president of the society, which position he 
filled with honor to himself and to the society. He 
studied parliamentary law and as president held 
everything strictly to that law. The fact, that he 
had been in the state reformatory was now for- 
gotten in the Scriptural sense of the word. He 
was respected for loliat he luas. 

The last two years he was in school he was presi- 
dent of his class, an honor that he rightly deserved. 
It is true his abrupt manner always clung to him, 
the want of early refining influences could not easily 
be overcome, but notwithstanding this, all knew 
that he was every whit a manly man and as such he 
7 



98 DIARY OF A 

held their confidence. He was a power for good 
in our school. One strong, rugged character, capa- 
ble in every way, always standing for that which is 
strictly right, is one of the best influences that can 
be brought into any school. 

After he graduated from the high school he taught 
school a few years, saved his money and then took 
a course in a higher institution of learning, and is 
to-day a valuable member of society, one whose in- 
telligence and education give him influence in the 
community where he lives. 

It is not so much icliat the boys study when they 
enter school, I am willing they should choose what 
they like best, anything to get them interested ; but 
it is of great importance to thoroughly arouse their 
Interest and to lead them to study what will give 
them as rounded a course as possible. 



CHAPTER XIV 



GEORGE 



George entered our school a month after it opened 
one fall term and took up the work in the Freshman 
class without difficulty, except in the Latin. This, 
at first, gave him trouble but by the end of the 
second month he was as good as any in the class. 

He was past eighteen years of age and had never 
before attended other than an ungraded country 
school. He was large and strong, and possessed 
an excellent mind. But notwithstanding his fine 
physique and bright mind, he did not at first pre- 
sent a very attractive appearance for he was clad in 
very plain, coarse clothing that indicated that the 
closest economy was necessary for him to be in 
school at all. 

The first time I talked with him he told me that 
it was uncertain how long he might be in school as 

LofC. (^^> 



100 DIARY OF A 

his people had just moved into town and were not 
yet decided as to how long they might remain. 

He became deeply interested in his studies and 
was able to do, and did do well, almost twice as 
much work as any other boy in the same class. This 
was in part, at least, due to his being two years 
older than most of those in his class ; still he had 
an excellent mind and a vigorous body and was 
willing to bend every energy to his school work. 

The weeks went by quickly for him and soon it 
was the first of March, and he was beginning to 
think of spring work. He had no choice, tvork he 
must, and that just as soon as he could secure a 
place on some farm. 

During the year we had often talked of his school 
work ; but now I felt that I must help him to see 
how it would be possible for him to continue with it 
until he could complete the high school course, even 
if it were necessary for hhn to cut short the school 
term at both ends. I asked him if he ever thought 
of completing the high school course. 

" No," said he, "I have never thought it possi- 
ble. I am always a month late entering school in 
fall and am compelled to drop out early in the 
spring, so how can I hope to finish the high school 
course, even if we continue to live in town? " 

" Very easily," I replied, " with your habits of 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 101 

study, your mature mind, and strong body, and 
with a set determination to finish the course, I knoio 
you can do it. If you will but try to do the work, 
I will see that you have every opportunity while in 
school to make up what you have missed by being 
out a few weeks in the spring and the first month 
in the fall. I am sure you can do it." 

George was pleased and said, " I never thought 
such a thing possible before. I'll do my best and 
every day I am not working I'll be in school." 

He, soon after this conversation, began work on 
a farm and was not again in school until a month 
of the following fall term had passed. When he 
again entered school he was thoroughly alive to his 
work. In some studies there were many lessons to 
be made up before he could gain anything from 
the recitations ; in others he could begin the recita- 
tion work with the classes and later make up the 
back work. Thus he began, earnestly, vigorously 
working to bring up the back work, and in part of 
the work preparing and reciting the advance lessons 
with the classes. — It is almost wonderful how much 
work a good, strong fellow can do when he is work- 
ing for a definite object. — But little help was given 
George, yet long before the time for him to drop 
out of school again he was fully abreast of his class. 
He was strong in the class. 



102 DIARY OF A 

Thus he worked year after year until he gradu- 
ated ; the last spring, however, he remained in 
school until the close. 

The very fact that he did so much of his work 
with but little attention from the teacher, made him 
independent, self-reliant, willing to do the tard 
parts as well as the easy, and when he graduated 
he was recognized as one of the most scholarly 
members of the class. 

It pays to help boys to see the possibilities that 
lie within their reach. We teachers in all our work 
ought to remember that the schools are for the boys 
and not the boys for the schools. 



CHAPTER XV 



NIM 



Nim's early history so far as an3^hing is known 
of it is this : when but six or seven years of age he 
was taken from the streets of New York City and 
with a number of other boys sent to Kansas where 
homes were found for them among the farming peo- 
ple of that State. Of his parents he remembered 
nothing, and the records of the society that sent 
him to his Western home give no clue to their 
identity. 

It was Nim's lot to be adopted by a farmer who 
lived on the border line of the rainless district in 
western Kansas, a farmer who each year found it 
harder and harder to make ends meet and, finally 
for the sake of a change, if not with the hope of bet- 
tering his condition, moved to the valley of the 
Platte in central Nebraska. 

(103) 



104 DIARY OF A 

Here he rented a farm and worked hard to make 
a living ; but the sweat of his brow scarce earned 
his bread ; one year the drouth parched his crops 
and the next they were destroyed by hail. 
Thoroughly disheartened by such a life, he became 
ill-temj^ered, and Nim found it impossible to live 
peaceably with him and many unpleasant scenes 
occurred between them. 

The farmer finally decided that he would send 
Nim to the state reform or industrial school, 
when Mr. Stone, a gentleman from our town who 
owned a ranch near Nim's home, offered to give 
him a home for a time, at least, on his ranch. 

Nim was fourteen the spring he went to Mr. 
Stone's ranch to work and all the summer long he 
worked on the ranch and lived pleasantly and hap- 
pily with those in charge of it. 

In September, he came to live with Mr. Stone in 
town that he might be in school, a better school and 
a longer term than he could have in the country'. 
Mr. Stone clothed him as neatly as any of the boj^s 
and treated him as kindly as though he were his 
own son, nor permitted him to miss a day of 
school. 

Nim was a fine-looking boy, bright in mind, and 
attractive in manners, and soon entered into the life 
and spirit of the school. He began in the seventh 






WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 105 

grade and at the close of the year was promoted to 
the eighth. When school was dismissed for the 
summer vacation Nim went to work on the ranch. 
In September he returned to school. 

This second year passed with him as the first. 
Mr. Stone was very careful not to permit him to 
loaf about the town when not in school ; before 
school of a morning and after school of an evening 
he had his chores to do, and after these were at- 
tended to he was required to give his time to the 
preparation of lessons for the coming day. I do 
not mean that he was allowed no time for sports and 
play with other boys ; he had his full share of time 
for recreation and improved it too ; but I mean 
this : Mr. Stone systematized Nim's work and play 
so that a year in school meant a year of earnest 
effort and improvement. 

At the close of this year he was promoted to the 
high school. He Avasnow sixteen years of age. 

On account of sickness in his family Mr. Stone 
found it necessary to spend a year in another 
State. As this broke up his home he could not 
look after Nim as he had done the last two years. 

Nim, now sixteen years of age, began to shift 
for himself. He secured work in the country and I 
knew no more of him until a week or two after 
school opened the following September, when I re- 



106 DIARY OF A 

ceived a note from him telling me he was working 
for a certain farmer and that his job of work would 
be completed within a few days and asking me to 
please help him find a home in town where he could 
work for his board and attend the high school. 

It happened that just a few days before this 
Mr. Kane, a friend of mine, had asked me if I 
knew of any boy that would like to work for his 
board and attend the high school, so I wrote Nim 
to come see me at once, that I thought I could help 
him. He came and through my influence secured a 
home in one of the best families in the town. 

His work was light, a cow to milk morning and 
evening, a horse and buggy to take care of and as 
there was never a rain in the winter season, it took 
but little work to keep a buggy in good trim. He 
was treated as one of the family, was given his own 
room, heated night and day, in fact, was better 
situated for his evening study than half the students 
of the high school. Of Saturdays Mr. Kane gave 
him work on the farm and paid him full wages for 
the same so that Nim could have his own pocket 
money. 

The first month Mr. Kane was delighted with 
Nim and Nim was equally pleased with his new 
home. But before the end of the second month 
things were changing. Mr. Kane said Nim was 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 107 

staying out late at night, and at school we were not 
satisfied with his work. 

I talked with Nim ; he admitted that he some- 
times remained out in town later than he should but 
thought he could quit it, and would try to give 
more time to the preparation of his lessons. But 
there was improvement only for a few days then he 
was out at night and behind in his work at school. 

I said to Mr. Kane that he ought to tell him 
what he could and what he could not do, as Mr. 
Stone had done, that I believed Mm would obey 
him ; but Mr. Kane was a Southern man, and said 
that he had once been able to " boss " colored peo- 
ple but he could not command white persons about 
his own home ; that if he had to ' ' boss ' ' the boy 
as he had once " bossed " the " darkies " he 
would rather not have him about the place. 
"But," said he, "I cannot turn that boy out of 
my home while he has no place to go and we like 
him very much, but we know he is not doing right." 

At school Nim was not accomplishing what he 
was capable of doing simply because his time out- 
side of school was so taken up with other things. 

Spring came, Nim secured work in the country 
and left school for the last time. Had Mr. Kane 
held Nim with the same firm hand that Mr. Stone 
had done, he might, in time, have come to the 



108 DIARY OF A 

point where he could see for himself what was best 
or he might have resented it and done worse than 
he did. I am inclined to think a strong hand 
would have been a blessing. 

I knew him for two years after he left school. 
He was the same Nim, a handsome fellow, liked by 
all who knew him, but never developing any real 
independence of character. When the Cuban war 
came on he enlisted in the army and since then I 
have heard nothing of him. 

I do not know that our interest in him did him 
any lasting good ; it placed him within the reach of 
a high school education but he failed to improve 
the opportunity ; had he been willing to make good 
use of his time, he could have had a home at Mr. 
Kane's until he graduated from the high school ; 
but it seemed that when he realized that he was 
responsible to no one outside of school that he was 
not capable of directing himself to his best inter- 
ests. And yet, all considered, his early life, his 
unpleasant boyhood, is it to be wondered at that he 
failed to make the most of himself when freed from 
restraint ? 



CHAPTER XVI 



NATE 



I had been in charge of the schools at G but 

a few days when one of the teachers asked me if I 
had made the acquaintance of Nate, as she put it, 
the " thorn in the flesh " to the last principal. 

I replied that I had not or, at least, not in an 
unpleasant way. Nate had been in school from the 
first day but had done nothing to attract my atten- 
tion other than that his general bearing had marked 
him as one of the leaders among the boys. His full, 
high forehead, his high cheek bones, and strong 
lower jaw, that seemed to close with the clinch of a 
vice, and his clear gray eye, that seemed to pene- 
trate whatever it was turned upon, gave the im- 
pression of an unusually strong character. He was 
about fifteen years of age at this time and had three 
years of high school work before him. 

(109) 



110 DIARY OF A 

In the grammar grade he had been the acknowl- 
edged leader in arithmetic and English grammar. 
A problem that Nate could not solve was a rare 
thing and he prided himself not a little on his ability 
to deal with almost all of the little knotty questions 
that came up in the study of grammar in the high 
school ; that is, he could cite authorities on most of 
these points thus showing an intimate acquaintance 
with most of the grammars accessible to the school. 
The other scholars stood somewhat in awe of his 
accomplishments in these two lines of study. In 
other work he was above the average until he came 
to algebra ; in this for a time he fell far short. 

The teacher who had charge of Nate's algebra 
class was a good teacher in some things but in 
algebra accomplished nothing. The class finally be- 
came so discouraged that I made a change and took 
charge of it myself. Although bright boys and girls, 
they had come to think algebra was a little beyond 
them and were wilhng to give it up. Day after 
day I worked to overcome the deadening effect of 
the former teaching and gradually they became in- 
terested and willing to believe they could learn it. 
Day after day we drilled carefully on the simple 
process of factoring until most of them felt a cer- 
tain confidence in themselves and were glad to try 
the more difficult problems without so much as a 



I 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTEK. Ill 

suggestion from me. But Nate sat with his teeth 
firmly clinched together fully decided that he could 
not learn and therefore it was all a waste of time 
for him to try. In fact, he had so fully convinced 
himself that he could not learn that he would not 
learn. 

I permitted this to go on for several days hoping 
that his sense of pride would be aroused by seeing 
the others becoming independent in their work, but 
he was not to be so moved. One evening I detained 
the class after school to give them a drill on a more 
than ordinarily difficult case in factoring. Nate 
took his place at the board but failed to follow the 
dictation. At first, I did not apparently notice his 
stubborn manner but susjorested to him what to do 
just as pleasantly as though he were putting forth 
every effort. He followed in a heartless way with 
no attempt to understand the process I was teaching 
them ; he was closed against everything that had to 
do with algebra, for, as he said, he knew he could 
not learn it. 

Finally he became so angry from being out-of- 
heart about it that he broke out in words and said : 
" I can't learn algebra and I'm not going to keep 
on studying it either. I loon't do it, Pm going to 
quit.'' 

I waited a moment, the class looked amazed. 



112 DIARY OF A 

then I said in as pleasant a manner as though he 
had said nothing out of place, " Nate, you are going 
to learn this case of factoring before you leave this 
house this evening, and you might just as well 
begin at once." " I know you can do it and you 
must do it.'" 

He turned again to the black-board, angry and 
humiliated, more from his discouraged feeling than 
from anything else, I thought, the tears streaming 
down his cheeks, and closely followed as I dictated 
problem after problem, I standing where 1 could 
see that he did the work just as I dictated. I was 
determined to hold him to the one point for an hour 
but what he should learn it. 

I called on different ones to explain the problems 
as they solved them, and before the end of the les- 
son called on Nate. I gave the problem, he solved 
it, and explained the process. Then I asked him 
if he understood it. He replied that he did, and 
that he could solve any of that kind. 

That was all I cared for from him for the even- 
ing. The fact is, that a good part of the hour 1 
devoted myself specially to him, holding him to 
the one thing by sheer will force, the others of 
the class working with very little attention from me. 

After we were through I smiled and said to Nate 
that it did him a great deal of good to get so angry, 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 113 

and asked him what he supposed would have hap- 
jjeued if I had gotten out of humor, too. This 
was asked, not tauntingly, but in a pleasant, 
friendly manner, that he and the class understood. 
All laughed, and we parted in good humor, and the 
work for the day was ended. 

That lifted Nate out of the " slough of despond," 
and never again did I help him with a jiroblem 
in algebra, and ever after he led the algebra class 
with perfect ease. 

I knew he had the power to do the work, and 
that in some way he must be made conscious of 
it ; that if I could but center his mind on the 
process and have him follow it a few times from dic- 
tation, and quit thinking for a moment that he 
could not do it, he would see through it instantly, 
and he would become conscious of his ability to do, 
and would put forth the effort. 

When I saw him so agitated I felt that then 
was my time, not simply as some one might say 
to "break his will," 7Wt this, but to calmly, and 
pleasantly, hold him to performing the process until 
his mind, highly excited as it was, should grasp the 
fact that he was doing the very thing he w^as 
saying he could not do. 

After completing algebra he was in my classes in 
plane and solid geometry, and trigonometry. He 



114 DIARY OF A 

was a fine student in all this work, and never in 
need of an explanation from any one. I remem- 
ber once in the trigonometry class that no one 
could solve a certain problem the first day it was 
given, but no one was willing to have it explained. 
" We can work it if 3'ou will give another day," 
said the class. I gave the day, but the problem 
was still unsolved. " Give us one more day and 
some of us will solve it without your help," said 
the class. Another day was given. 

Before school the next morning Nate came into 
the high school room smiling and said, " I've solved 
it. I was sitting down at the barn last evening and 
thought it out while there. I've just worked it in 
my head, but I know it's right. I'll put it on 
the blackboard for you to see it." Without a book 
he stepped to the blackboard and rapidly worked 
out the problem. It was a difficult one involving 
the solution of a number of triangles but he had so 
studied it that he drew his figures and worked out 
the required results just as quickly as he could use 
the chalk. He was the only one that solved the 
problem without helj^. 

When I first began work in the schools at G , 

the boys had no pride in their school, no school 
spirit. A perfectly lifeless routine affair. This I 
knew must be changed, that we must have such 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 115 

strong class work that the boys would realize they 
were getting something for their time and that there 
must also be something other than lessons in which 
they could be interested and feel that it in a special 
sense was theirs. 

Without discussing the good of declamatory con- 
tests in themselves I have learned that as a means 
to an end they are an excellent thing. A good 
declamatory contest rightly managed begets a school 
spirit that is most healthful. 

I determined to close the term with a public 
declamatory entertainment. But then came the 
question how to induce the boys fifteen or sixteen 
years of age to speak. In a school where there has 
been no speaking, this is a serious question. Be- 
fore announcing publicly to the school what we 
were going to do, beginning with Nate I took the 
boys privately one at a time, explained to them 
what I wished to do and asked their help. 

I talked with Nate, stated that I would like to 
give a declamatory entertainment at about such a 
time and would hke him to be one of the speakers. 

" But I can't speak " said Nate. " That's true, 
Nate, but you can learn to speak and you would 
like to do that, I'm sure." "Father is a good 
declaimer and I would like to learn, but I am 
afraid I couldn't do any good" said he. "I'll 



116 DIARY OF A 

tell you what I'll do, Nate, if you will agree to try 
to help me out in this, I'll find a piece, drill you in 
speaking it, and then if you think you cannot 
speak it well enough to speak it in public, I'll 
excuse you from speaking it." "Is that fair? " 
"Yes, it is fair," said he. "Well, you talk it 
over with your father to-night and tell me in the 
morning if you will do it" said I, "but don't 
speak of it to any of the other boys until we have 
decided what we shall do." 

The next morning Nate told me that his father 
was pleased with the idea of his trying to speak 
and that I could count on him. 

Then I carefully selected another boy somewhat 
of a leader, and gave him the same explanation of 
my plan, and finished by stating that Nate had 
already pledged me he would declaim. This was 
enough, he would do what Nate would do ; I could 
count on him. 

In this way I j^roceeded until I had my program 
completed. Then I announced to the school that 
at such a time we would give a declamatory pro- 
gram and read the names of those w^ho expected to 
take part. It was a surprise to the school and 
awakened great interest. 

I selected, or aided the boys in selecting, decla- 
mations and for several weeks gave my spare time 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 117 

before school of mornings and after school of even- 
ings to training them to speak. They took great 
interest in trying to do their best, and the close 
companionship this drilling them brought about 
between the boys and myself was of the greatest 
value to us both. 

In all this work Nate was the one that uncon- 
sciously to himself and the others helped me to 
bring about the desired result. He was no longer 
a " thorn in the flesh " to the principal but rather 
a ' ' spur ' ' to the school to press on to better 
things. 

Do not think I mean to say that Nate was a per- 
fect model in deportment. He was a strong-willed 
boy and sometimes let his boyishness lead him to 
do things that were not strictly in accord with the 
disci j)line of the school, but he was always easily 
brought to proper conduct by an appeal to his 
sense of honor ; he was manly through and through. 

Nate's habits of study were different from most 
boys ; he would sit in the high school apparently 
gazing around the room, a smile on his face as if 
bent on mischief and waiting his opportunity ; and 
yet all the while his mind was occupied with some 
difficult point in a lesson. If it happened to be a 
problem in mathematics he were thinking out, if you 
were to watch him for a few moments, you would 



118 DIAKY OF A 

see him take up his pencil and figure rapidly for a 
short time. He was putting in form what he had 
been thinking out, and generally he was sure of the 
result before he made use of his pencil. 

I remember one teacher whom he annoyed very 
much at first by this habit. She said to me : 
" Nate doesn't study to do much good while I am 
in charge of the room but spends most of his time 
looking around ; now and then he figures a little but 
not long at a time." 

This was before I knew him well so at her re- 
quest I spoke to him about his spending so much 
time looking around the room when he should have 
his mind centered on his lessons. " But," said he, 
"I am studying when I'm looking around; I'm 
thinking out my problems and then afterwards I put 
them down. Don't I always have my lessons? " 1 
had to admit that I heard no complaints of his not 
preparing his lessons. As we knew him better we 
found that he was all the time at work even when 
apparently gazing around the room. 

Most of his school work he prepared during 
school hours, except his mathematical problems. 
These he often carried in his mind and solved them 
while eno-ao-ed at other work. 

His parents were wealthy and took great delight 
in their children. At home Nate exhibited quite a 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASIER. 119 

liking for mechanical work and the father, to en- 
courage him, fitted up a room for a shop and sup- 
plied him with whatever tools he called for. Before 
he graduated from the high school, Nate was a fine 
gun-smith, an expert in repairing locks, guns, and 
bicycles. During the last two years of his high 
school course, his mornings, evenings, and Satur- 
days, were given to this kind of work. He often 
made a day's wages after school of an evening. 
This work in no way interfered with his school 
work. 

During the three years Nate was in the high 
school he was one of the most loyal, helpful high 
school boys I have ever known and his leadership 
had a marked influence over the younger boys. 
These boys who have the faculty of leadership are 
a great blessing to any school if they are wisely 
turned in the rio^ht direction. 



CHAPTP]R XVII 



AL AND WALTER 



There had been no fighting among our high school 
boys on the way to and from school for almost a 
year, when one noon I was much surprised to learn 
that two of the best boys in school had engaged in 
a fist fight with a large boy from one of the gram- 
mar grades. 

It happened in this way: Al and Walter were 
walking along when the grammar grade boy came 
up to Al and spoke in a manner that made Al very 
angry. Quick as flash Al resented the words and 
instantly they were fighting. The grammar grade 
boy was as old as Al and a better trained fighter, 
so Walter at once stepped in to help his friend. It 
was on one of the public streets of the town and as 
(120) 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 121 

usual attracted a crowd and caused a great commo- 
tion. 

I felt heartily ashamed of the whole affair. Such 
things had once been so common that no one took 
much note of them, but now that we had gone almost 
a year without anything of the kind, this seemed all 
the more disgraceful to the school ; but while I was 
ashamed of it, I was in no way out of heart over 
the break in the good record we had been making. 
Such breaks always come ; the only problem is to so 
deal with them that in the end good lessons may be 
given the school and the possibility of such occur- 
ences in the future lessened. 

I hastily considered the matter that I might have 
some plan of action mapped out in mind to present 
when school opened for the afternoon. I knew 
everyone was anxious to know what would be done. 

We opened school as usual. Without attracting 
any attention the boys were quietly requested to pass 
to my office, where I met them. They were both 
humiliated at what they had done. There had 
been time for their tempers to cool and they could 
see how unfortunate their conduct was for them- 
selves and for the school. 

I said to them that once fiffhtino; had been so 
common on the way to and from school that people 
living on the school street lost all respect for the 



122 DIAKY OF A 

school ; that for almost a year there had been no 
trouble of any kind and that the change had been 
so marked that the people of the whole town felt 
proud of it ; but now a break had been made that 
would take us a year at least to live down ; that the 
fight had lessened the respect that the people had 
for us and also put before the younger boys an 
example that would make them feel that they too 
could get mad and fight on any provocation ; that 
while we could not help what had been done, we 
must try to prevent like happenings in the 
future. 

*' And now, boys," said I, "you say you are 
sorry you engaged in the fight, and I believe you 
are and am willing to forgive you ; but the evil 
effect of this wrong doing on yourselves and on 
others, I cannot so easily clear away." " In the 
first place, there must be some punishment con- 
nected with this that will cause you to stop and 
think before giving away to unruly tempers ; in 
the second place, the other boys of the school must 
see that wrong-doing on the part of leading boys in 
the high school meets its just deserts as quickly as 
with any others ; this, I know, you will say is 
nothing more than fair." 

" What that punishment should be, I do not 
know." " I will not be hasty in this, neither will 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 123 

I take it on myself alone to decide, but will ask you 
to tell me what you think it should be ; you under- 
stand the offense and I am sure will try to put a 
just estimate on it, so you may think it over until 
to-morrow morning, when you will report to me." 

The next morning they met me in my office but 
said they could think of nothing to suggest ; for me 
to make the punishment whatever I thought right 
and they would abide by my decision without any 
complaining. 

In the meantime I had not been idle but had 
weighed the offense trying to take every circumstance 
into consideration ; Al and Walter were two of my 
most trusty boys in the high school ; Al's quick tem- 
per was the only thing that ever gave him any trouble 
and on this occasion there was some provocation ; 
Walter had never before been reproved for anything ; 
they were two boys whose high school records for 
the year had been as clear as such records can be ; 
they had shown a willingness to submit to whatever 
I required and to do it in a pleasant spirit ; there 
had been no self-justification. 

I said to the boys that I had one solution to offer ; 
if it did not meet their approval, we would try to 
find one that would. My solution was that from 
that day on until such a time as I saw fit to 
relieve them, they should not come to school or go 



124 DIARY OF A 

home from school with the other pupils ; they 
should remain at home until the last bell began to 
ring, then come to school down one of the back 
streets which I designated ; that when school was 
dismissed at noon and evening they should remain 
in their seats until all others were gone, then go 
home by the back street ; and that in order that all 
might know that the offense had not been passed 
over I would explain to the school what they were 
to do. 

The boys said that they were willing to follow 
out this plan. Before we dismissed school that 
noon, I talked to the school of the fight. I said 
nothing unkind of the boys, I spoke of their al- 
most perfect record in the past, and of how proud 
we all felt that fighting had so long ceased to take 
from the good name of our high school ; and that 
while we all felt that the fight had hurt us, we must 
try the harder to guard ourselves against such 
things in the future. The school was with me in 
sympathy and so were Al and Walter. Then I 
explained what we had agreed upon and asked that 
the fight and everything connected with it be drop- 
ped as a subject of conversation. 

I heard no more of it. Al and Walter kept their 
part to the very letter for two months, without a 
sour word, or an unpleasant look. 



I 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 125 

At the end of the second month I said : ' ' Boys , 
you have regained in every way your place in the 
school, and you are free to go and come with the 
others." 

I was in the high school several years after this 
but fighting among the high school boys was never 
again clothed with the semblance of respectability. 



CHAPTER XVIIl 



WASH 



Shortly after I began my work in the schools, 

I discovered a boy in one of the seventh grades , a 
colored boy of about fifteen years of age, who was 
very irregular in attendance, the mother always 
writing an excuse for him noth withstanding the fact 
that when he was not in school he spent much of 
his time in the neighborhood of the school appar- 
ently loafing. 

After consulting with his teacher I was convinced 
that there was no good reason for his being absent 
so often and I decided that there must be a differ- 
ent arrangement and such "excused" truancy 
stopped. 

A day or two later he was absent from school 
again. That day, soon after school opened at 
noon, as I was going from the building in which his 
(126) 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 127 

school was located, I happened to look down a b}'- 
street and saw my colored boy peeping out of a 
door of a planing mill to watch when I should be 
out of sight. I said to myself " that boy will from 
now on either be in school regularly or spend his 
time elsewhere than in the neighborhood of the 
school house." 

The next morning he was still absent. I went to 
see his mother. I talked to her about Wash and 
his school work ; how important it was for him to 
be there every day, how much he could do if he 
were only regular in attendance. She seemed 
pleased that I took so much interest in him but 
finally said : ' ' Well, Wash. , he don't like his teacher 
and he don't like to go to school, so I let him go 
errands for me. He's not playing truant, he's 
goin' errands." 

" But Mrs. T ," said I, " You cannot afford 

to work so hard to support Wash, and have him 
spend most of his time loafing around the streets. 
He could do your errands and still be in school all 
day. You and your girls work very hard ; Wash, is 
better able to work than any of you, and if he is 
not going to be in school to do any good, he had 
better get a job of work. Where is he now? " 
*' O, he has gone down town to get me a spool of 
thread," she replied. 



128 DIAIIY OF A 

1 told her what I knew to be true, that Wash, was 
doing some things while loaring around that would 
get him into trouble and that the best thing for her 
to do was to help us hold him in school or j^ut him 
to work. 

But there was nothing to be gained by talking 
further with her for she finally said that as he 
didn't like his teacher she couldn't make him go to 
school. (He had an excellent teacher.) 

I left her determined that, while she could not 
help me in the least, I would find some other way 
to get that boy off the streets and away from the 
neighborhood of the schools if I could not get him 
to attend school regularly. 

As I passed down the sti-eet I met one of our 
city officers, one who had been quite active in help- 
ing me enforce the compulsory attendance law ; I 
said to him that there were two or three boj^s, 
beyond the compulsory age, hanging around the 
neighborhood of the Central School that I would 
like to compel either to attend school regularly or 
go to work. I then told him. of Wash. 

He knew the boy only too well and was informed 
as to his conduct, which had not been of the best, 
by any means. " I'll send him to the reform 
school if he does not attend school regularly," said 
he, and he meant it. " May I go and tell his 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 129 

mother that you said you would send Wash, to the 
reform school if he does not attend school every 
day? " I asked. " Yes, go and tell her, and if he 
does not change his course at once, I'll send him 
there in a hurry." 

I did not wait to inquire on what grounds he 
would commit the boy but I knew that he thought 
that he had all the evidence necessary. I lost no 

time in delivering the message. " Mrs. T ," 

said I, "Mr. R sent me to tell you that if 

Wash, did not at once enter school and attend regu- 
larly, he would send him to the reform school." 

" Law goodness," said she, " we don't want him 
to go there shoah." " No," said I ; " you do not 
for if he goes there it will be a long time before you 
see him. The best thing for Wash, is to get him 
into school at once and keep him there." " He'll 
be in this afternoon, shoah," replied she, " and 
he'll be there all the time." 

I knew that Wash., as well as his mother, would 

be frightened when they knew that Mr. R had 

made such a threat. 

Wash, came to school that afternoon and was 
regular in his attendance to the close of the year. 

Here was a w^ell-meaning but weak-willed mother, 
a mother with no control of her boy. This was the 
cause of his truancy. Whether or not the medicine 
9 



130 DIARY OF A 

was properly administered, I know not, but I do 
know that it at least stayed the ravages of the 
disease in his case. 

All this was done kindly, so that the family feel 
that I am their friend even though they must bend 
to my will in school affairs. 



CHAPTER XIX 



REX 



Rex was about ten years old and was working in 
a broom factory when school opened. When we 
found that he was not in school the truant officer 
called at the home to inquire about him. His 
mother said that he had work and that she thought 
it was her place to say whether or not her boy 
should go to school ; that she did not believe in a 
law that took the control of her boy out of her hands. 
As he did not immediately put in an appearance, I 
went with the truant officer to see the mother. She 
said he had quit work but she did not know whether 
or not he would go to school. 

I knew from her strong face that if she said Rex 
must go, he would go. I talked with her trying to 
lead her to see the importance of her boy's being in 
school, appealed to her pride that her boy should 

(131) 



132 DIARY OF A 

have the same show to get along as her neighbor's 
boys who were in school, and then kindly but 
firmly insisted that there was no question, the boy 
must be in school at least four months, the com- 
pulsory limit ; and I said that I hoped that she 
would not make it necessary for me to go to further 
trouble to enforce the law. 

She agreed to send Rex the next morning but 
said after that we would have to take charge of him, 
for he did not like to go to school. I knew when 
she said he would be there the next morning that 
he would come, but I also knew that she did not 
expect him to be there every day. 

Rex came the next morning and for a number 
of days. Then he was reported absent, and the 
truant officer looked him up and brought him to 
school. 

An incident happened at this time that gave me 
almost complete control of him, and thus far has 
saved all trouble. A thieving man employed Rex 
and another boy to steal the brass trimmings off of 
a locomotive that was being dismantled, and to 
carry them to a place where he dared take posses- 
sion of them. He gave the boys a few pennies for 
their work. The theft was discovered, the man and 
the boys were arrested, and there was talk of send- 
ing the boys to the reform school. The man lay 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 133 

ill jail three months. I investigated the affair, 
and knowing all felt that it would not be right to 
deal with the boys too severely. I made a plea 
privately in behalf of the boys, asking that their 
parents be instructed that the boys must attend 
school regularly or they would be sent to the 
reform school ; that the sentence should not be 
executed so long as the boys attended school every 



My request was granted, the sentence was stayed, 
and they were permitted to remain at home during 
good behavior. 

The boy that played truant plays truant no more, 
and the mother sees to it that he is in school. 
Among " her class " she is one of my strong sup- 
porters in enforcing the law she once tried hard to 
evade. My words in favor of giving her boy an- 
other trial won her to my side, and made her feel 
that I was a friend, and not simply trying to take 
away her rights. 



CHAPTER XX 

CARL AND SOME OTHER BOYS 

Carl was twelve years of age ; a bright, sturdy boy. 
His mother had died when he was six years old. 
For several years after his mother's death he lived 
with his grand-parents. They became tired of him, 
as he was too self-willed for them to control. Then 
his father took him to live with him. The father 
and the boy lived and kept house for a number of 
weeks in a single room. The father is an honest, 
hard-working man. As he told me a few weeks 
ago, he would get up in the morning, cook their 
breakfast and eat his own while the boy was still 
asleep. The father is a teamster and is engaged in 
hauling hay from the country. After he left in the 
morning he saw no more of Carl until noon, when 
they ate dinner together ; then he knew no more of 
him until evenino^. In the evening the father would 
(134) 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER 135 

often go out in town, and Carl, left to himself, did 
the same. Do you wonder, that with such home 
conditions it was a difficult task to hold him regu- 
larly in school ? 

Frequently he would be reported absent. The tru- 
ant officer at first had trouble to find the father, but 
when he did find him the father was much worried 
about his boy, for he wanted him to be in school 
every day. We not only notified the father but the 
police as well, so that they would bring Carl in if 
found on the street. But for some time he was 
more than an equal for his father, the police, and 
the truant officer. Before school time in the 
morning he would take a dog or two and " skip " 
to the country to hunt rabbits. 

One evening his father whipped him very severely 
and made him promise that he would go to school 
the next morning, but it seems the dogs and 
rabbits had a greater influence on him than the 
whipping, he went hunting. 

1 talked with Carl, cultivated his acquaintance, 
and tried to find out why he was so determined to 
be out of school. All he would say was that he 
liked to go to school bad days but would rather go 
hunting good days. 

He was not an unpleasant boy in school, the only 
difficulty was to get him into school. The fact 



136 DIARY OF A 

that he always went to the country made it hard f or 
the truant officer to catch him. 

I reahzed all the time that what the boy needed 
was a home where some one would look after him. 
I finally learned that he had an aunt in town. I 
saw her and told her that I thought a good home 
would do away with the boy's truancy. She finally 
agreed to take him into her home, although she was 
not really able to do it. He lived with her for a 
number of weeks until his father moved from our 
town, and as long as he was with her he never 
again played truant. 

While working with this boy and studying his 
case, I felt that one great need of the State to-day 
is parental schools, accessible to districts outside 
of the large cities, where habitual truants whose 
home conditions are such as to render it almost 
impossible to keep them in school, could be sent. 
Schools where truants could be sent and no stigma 
attach itself to them for having been there. Places 
where there would be no suggestion of a criminal 
class. 

One afternoon four boys were reported absent 
from school. Before the day was over the truant 
officer brought word that the four boys were spend- 
ing the afternoon sunning themselves down by the 
railroad just outside the town. They were seventh 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 137 

and eighth grade boys. Some one had seen them 
and notified the officer. I did not ask him to bring 
them in. I knew they would come of their own 
accord in the morning, and that would be the best 
time to meet them. They were not habitual 
truants. 

The next morning they were in school. I sent 
for them to come to my office one at a time. The 
first that came was fourteen years of age, and a 
good fellow. I asked him why he was out of school 
the afternoon before, how he happened to be out. 
He told me the whole story. One boy had dared 
the others to stay out of school and he couldn' 
take a dare. I then asked if he did not think we 
would find it out. He said he knew we would but 
he did not " like for the others to back him down." 
He then said, " Give me a good whipping, I ought 
to have it; so just give it to me; " and he was 
ready to take it. 

I talked with him a few moments longer and 
tried to place a just estimate on the offense and not 
to magnify it so that he would think he had com- 
mitted an unpardonable crime. Then I told him I 
would let him know in the evening what the punish- 
ment would be. 

One after another I interviewed them. Each 
one told me what I knew to be true ; no one tried 



138 DIARY OF A 

to excuse himself, and each one said that he had 
done wrong and ought to suffer the penalty what- 
ever I thought it should be. 

The one point I aimed at in my talk with them 
was to be just, neither underestimating nor over- 
estimating the offense. When boys know that we 
are just, and our sense of justice must be from a 
boy's point of view largely, there is little difficulty 
in settling troubles with them. 

In the evening I met the four together and sub- 
mitted what seemed to me the proper thing to do ; 
not to whip them as some of them had suggested, 
but to let them remain thirty minutes each evening 
until the time lost should be made up. I asked them 
if they thought it fair or if they could suggest a 
better arrangement, saying that I should be glad to 
have them do so if they could. They said it was 
all right, that they would be glad to settle it that 
way. 

I did not pledge them not to do so again, but 
said to them pleasantly as we parted: "Boys, I 
hope you will try not to get us into this kind of 
trouble again." 

Theirs was only a sporadic case of truancy and 
I do not know but that it proved a real good ; it 
brought the boys and myself into closer touch ; I 
saw more real worth in them than I had seen before. 



WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 139 

and as they left my office I could but admire the 
real manliness of the boys notwithstanding their 
faults. 

Three years ago when visiting a school in an east- 
ern city I happened to step into a fifth grade room. 
I had been there but a moment before I felt the 
harsh, forbidding atmosphere. You know you can 
feel such things even before understanding the 
cause. The teacher's voice was harsh and rasping 
as a file. Presently she turned to me and said : 
" Do you have many bad boys in your school? " 
"No," I replied, " very few." "We do," con- 
tinued she, " they are most all bad!" Now I 
think that if a boy is ever justified in playing 
truant it is when he has such a person for his 
teacher. 

Sometimes I have transferred a boy from one 
teacher to another in the same grade, for the sake 
of giving him a teacher who could so interest him 
that he would cease to play truant. This is a sim- 
ple but very effective means of preventing truancy 
where the cause is weak parental authority at home, 
and a teacher at school who fails to strike the 
proper responsive chord in the boy. 

In all I have said of these boys and truancy my 
one aim has been to bring out the thought that we 
must treat each individual case on its own merits. 



140 DIARY OF A WESTERN SCHOOLMASTER. 

and that to do this, there must be a clear under- 
standing of the causes. It pays in smaller cities 
and towns for the superintendent to become per- 
sonally acquainted with those who have a tendency 
to truancy. Often, if he is a man of warm heart, 
his words do more, much more, than the words of 
the teacher toward interesting the boy in his school 
work. We, superintendents and teachers, and in 
the larger cities principals and teachers, should 
know the home conditions in such cases to have 
the sympathetic support of parents where it is most 
needed. We cannot handle people with tongs and 
di'aw forth the proper response. We must under- 
stand and appreciate, from their point of view, the 
life they live to be helpful to them. 



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